


4'k 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.E?:.R^opyright No.. 
«liell'_..._S_a7 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



2ro 



tijc memory? of m^) father, U)!)ose 

ijfston'cal Ijcart antr mfutr 
Ujcrc mg inspiration antr i)0lp. 



STORIES OF MAINE 



BY 

SOPHIE SWETT 







NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI ■:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



^ 



(sJ^- 




4?069 



Copyright, 1899, by 
SOPHIE SWETT. 



STO. OF MAINE 
W. P. I 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 



^COWD COPY, 










PREFACE. 



The stories of the smallest, the least important, the 
most favored by fate of the United States of the New 
World, are well worth the telling. It may therefore be 
wondered that those of Maine — historically the begin- 
ning of New England, the scene of the bloodiest Indian 
wars, the place where different European nations con- 
tended most fiercely for supremacy, and whose records 
are so dramatic that they read like folklore and legend 
rather than veritable history — should have been so little 
told. Many of those that have been told are to be found 
in histories that are out of print and forgotten, and in 
the musty folios of the historical societies, where the 
young people, at least, seldom look. Some not yet, 
and perhaps never to be read, have been written by 
glaciers and fossil remains on rocky headlands and in 
obscure caves. In remote graveyards strange foreign 
names and inscriptions hint of others. 

The writer has sought to select, from an overflowing 
store, those narratives which most vividly and dramatic- 
ally illustrate the evolution of the great state from a 

5 



6 

savage-haunted wilderness to a community whose com- 
merce, in ships of her own building, has extended over 
the whole civilized world, whose institutions of learning 
rank with the first, and whose statesmen, soldiers, ora- 
tors, and authors form a list that few of the other states 
can rival. 

That these stories do not assume to be a history of 
Maine is evident at the outset; but it is the author's 
hope that the valuable historical facts with which they 
are filled may be absorbed by eager readers — as the pill 
is swallowed, all unwittingly, in the jelly. 



4 



CONTENTS. 



I. The First Voyagers to Maine .... 

II. The Maine Indians 

III. How Captain Weymouth Kidnaped the Natives 
IV. Father Biard's Story . . • • 

V. The Story of Epenow and Assacomet 

VI. The Plymouth Company 

VII. The Story of La Tour and D'Aulney 
VIII. King Philip's War . . • • 

IX. Agamenticus and Passaconaway. 
X. Simon, the Yankee-Killer . . . • • 
XI. The Story of Baron Castine . • • 

XII. A Maine Sindbad 

XIII. Major Waldron and the Indians . 

XIV. Lovewell's War 

XV. The First Naval Battle of the Revolution 

XVI. The Burning of Falmouth . . • • 

XVII. A Hairbreadth Escape 

XVIII. The British again in Maine 
XIX. 'Maine in the Civil War . • 

7 



PAGE 

9 



17 

23 
34 
48 

53 
70 

87 

99 
116 

129 

141 
156 

169 

185 

197 

, 205 

. 214 

, 226 



8 

XX. Anecdotes of the Heroes of Maine 

XXI. The Emma and the "Leapixg Tarantula" 

XXII. Some of Maine's Resources 

XXIII. The "Aroostook War" .... 

XXIV. The Ships of Maine ^ 

XXV. Maine's Famous Humorist .... 



PAGE 
238 

252 

262 
271 



STORIES OF MAINE. 



3>8SjOO- 



L THE FIRST VOYAGERS TO MAINE. 

THE beginning of Maine dates back to the begin- 
ning of the great American nation. The earHest 
discoverers, the Northmen, who were born rovers, sailed 
their queer primitive ships to its shores more than a 
thousand years ago, and while all America was a wil- 
derness inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts. 

One of these Northmen, named Biorne, sailing from 
Iceland to Greenland, was driven by wild winds so far 
astray that, as it seems from his descriptions, he caught 
sight of Cape Cod, and then retraced his course north- 
easterly along the shores of Maine and Nova Scotia. 
The accounts which these wandering Northmen left of 
their discoveries are somewhat vague and confused. 
Adventurers are not apt to be exact chroniclers, and 
stories handed down through many generations lose 
nothing on the way. 

Old Icelandic stories tell us of a Scandinavian giant, 
Thorhall, who would have been the discoverer of Maine 
if winds and waves had permitted. Wonderful were 
Thorhall's feats of strength, as related in these tales. 

9 



lO 



When his ship got aground, he could always push it off, 
single-handed ; when the wind fell, he rowed the ship 




with one mighty oar. He had even been known to pick 
it up and carry it across a sandbar, without troubling the 
crew to disembark ! 

This wonderful Thorhall and his crew had sailed 
across Massachusetts Bay in a northeasterly direction, 
and almost reached the coast of Maine, when his vessel 
encountered a northwest wind so furious and persistent 
that it was blown completely across the Atlantic Ocean 
to the Irish shores! And in Ireland Thorhall and his 
men were made slaves. 

All that can be vouched for as true about this story 
is that one of the first white men to see the shores of 
Maine was an Icelander of unusual stature, named 
Thorhall. 



1 1 

There is no doubt that Sebastian Cabot discovered the 
Maine coast, in 1498. Verrazano, a Florentine, sent by 
the King of France in 1524, after touching at North 
CaroHna, sailed to the shores of Maine, and, returning, 
reported that he " had discovered a country never before 
seen by any voyager since the world began." Estevan 
Gomez came next, sent by Charles V. of Spain. He 
named the old Markland and Vinland of the Northmen, 
— territory of which Maine now forms a part, — the 
'' Country of Gomez ;" and he captured as many Indians 
as he could, to sell as slaves to the Spaniards. 

The Mary of Guilford, an English vessel, commanded 
by one John Rut, came to the coast of Maine in the 
year 1567. Rut and his men landed, and explored, to 
some extent, the interior of the country, — the first Eng- 
lishmen known to have set foot upon the American 
continent. 

Andre Thevet, a French monk, was one of the earli- 
est visitors to the coast of Maine. After he returned to 
France he wrote a book called '* The Singularities of 
Antarctic France, otherwise called America;" and in it 
we find this description of the Penobscot River: 

'' Here we entered a river which is one of the finest 
in the whole world. We call it Norumbeg^a. It is 
marked on some charts as the Grand River. The natives 
call it Agoncy. Several beautiful rivers flow into it. 
Upon its banks the French formerly erected a small 
fort, about ten leagues from its mouth. It was called 
the fort of Norumbega, and was surrounded by fresh 
water. 

" Before you enter this river there appears an island, 



12 



surrounded bv elorht small islets. These are near the 
country of the Green Mountains. About three leagues 
into the river there is an island four leagues in circum- 
ference, which the natives call Aiayascou [now Isles- 
borough]. It would be easy to plant on this island, and 
to build a fortress which would hold in check the whole 
surrounding country. 




,.»«'"' 



" Upon landing, we saw a great multitude of people, 
coming down upon us in such numbers that you might 
have supposed them to be a flight of starlings. The 
men came first, then the women, then the boys, then the 
girls. They were all clothed in the skins of wild animals. 

" Considering their aspect and mode of advancing, we 
mistrusted them, and retired on board our vessel. 



13 

They, perceiving our fear, made signs of friendship. 
The better to assure us, they sent to our vessel several 
of their principal men, with presents of provisions. We 
returned a few trinkets of little value, with which they 
were highly pleased. 

" The next morning I, with some others, was com- 
missioned to meet them, to see if we could obtain more 
provisions, of which we stood in great need. As we 
entered the house of the chief, w^ho w^as called Pemarick, 
w^e saw several slaughtered animals hanging on the 
beams. 

" The chief gave us a hearty welcome. To show his 
affection, he ordered a fire to be built, on which meat 
and fish were placed to be roasted. Upon this some 
warriors came in, bringing to the chief the dissevered 
heads of six men whom they had taken in battle. The 
sight terrified us. Fearing that we might suffer in the 
same way, we, towards evening, secretly retired to our 
ship, without bidding our host good-by. 

*' This greatly displeased him. In the morning he 
came to the ship with three of liis children. His coun- 
tenance w^as very sad, for he thought he had offended 
us. He said to me in his own language: ' Go back on 
land with me, my friend and brother. Come and eat 
and drink such as we have. We assure you upon oath, 
by heaven, earth, moon, and stars, that you shall not 
fare worse than we do ourselves.' 

'* Seeing the good affection of this old man, twenty 
of us went again on land, all well armed. We went to 
his house, where we were feasted, and presented with 
whatever he possessed. 



H 

" Meanwhile large numbers of his people arrived. 
Ihey all greeted us in the most affectionate manner, 
declaring that they were our friends. Late in the even- 
ing, when we wished to retire, they all entreated us to 
remain through the night. But we could not be per- 
suaded to sleep with them, and so we retired to our 
vessel. Having remained in this place five days, we 
weighed anchor, and parting from them wdth a marvel- 
ous contentment on both sides, went out upon the open 
sea. 

Nearly fifty years now passed away, during which no 
explorers visited the shores of Maine, although both 
France and England were sending expeditions to the 
New World, and trying to gain possession of the same 
territories. 

In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, 
England, and boldly took a new route, avoiding the old 
circuitous one by the Azores. He stood straight across 
the ocean from Falmouth, and made the land about 
Sagadahoc. The journalist of this voyage relates that, 
when they anchored, they were startled by the sight of 
eight Indians in a Biscay shallop, with mast and sail, 
some of them dressed in European clothing. This hap- 
pened in what is now Casco Bay, May 14, 1602. 

Mount Agamenticus was probably the first land seen 
by Gosnold, and York his first landing place. He very 
soon sailed away from Maine, and afterwards settled in 
Virp'inia. 

The next year, Martin Bring, another Englishman, 
entered Penobscot Bay, and probably the York and 
Kennebunk rivers. It is said that Bring and his men 



15 

gave to the Fox Islands tlieir name, liavhig seen there 
a great number of silver foxes; also that they carried' 
home, among other curiosities, a canoe, which was 
placed on exhibition, and was regarded as a marvel of 
ingenuity for savage tribes to have accomplished. Pring 
is said to have written the best description of the coun- 
try that had yet been given. 

At about this time a little settlement was made by 
French priests on Mount Desert Island, and this hap- 
pened as the result of a very curious quarrel. The 
French king, Henry of Navarre, had granted to Pierre 
de Monts, a Protestant gentleman and member of the 
king's household, a grant of all American territory 
lying between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of 
north latitude, that is, between the latitude of Phila- 
delphia and a parallel a little north of Mount Katahdin. 
M. Pourtrincourt, De Monts's friend, came with him to 
America, and they established the settlement of Port 
Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. 

On a second voyage to Port Royal, Pourtrincourt 
brought with him his son, Biencourt, and two Jesuit 
priests, Biard and Masse, whose purpose was to con- 
vert the natives to the Roman Catholic religion. 
Even before the vessel landed, Pourtrincourt had 
quarreled violently with the priests, declaring that it 
was " his part to rule them on earth, and theirs only 
to guide him to heaven." 

When he departed again to France, and left his son 
in command of the settlement, Biencourt was even 
more domineering than his father had been ; for when 
the priests threatened him with the anathemas of the 



i6 

church on account of his dissipated and reckless con- 
duct, he retahated by vowing to set up the whipping 
post for them. 

Accounts vary as to the time that the fathers spent 
with Biencourt after this unpleasantness. They seem 
to have made an expedition to the Penobscot, and then 
returned to Port Royal ; and it was only after being 
reenforced by other priests and some French colonists, 
who had come over under the patronage of Mme. de 
Guercheville, that they attempted the Mount Desert 
settlement which we shall hear of later. 

These Jesuit missionaries, as well as those who came 
after them, seem to have been truly good and self- 
denying men, and to have acquired a remarkable influ- 
ence over the savages. In fact, it was probably through 
the influence of these priests that the Indians remained 
always on better terms with the French than with the 
English. 



11. THE MAINE INDIANS. 

THE Maine Indians, divided into two great tribes, 
the Etechemins and the Abenaques, were all de- 
scendants of the Mohicans, and the Mohicans were de- 
scendants of the Lenape, or ** original people," as they 
called themselves. The Lenape migrated eastward from 
the Pacific Ocean many hundred years ago. In ancient 
Indian traditions it is related that the race originated in 
the West. All their tales of lost glory and greatness 
cluster about the land of the setting sun. 

The Lenape wandered to the Mississippi River, 
where they found other tribes, who were pilgrims from 
another country, — always the West. Fighting with 
some tribes, and allying themselves with others, they 
traveled on to the Hudson River, which they called 
the Mahicannituck ; and from this they received their 
name, naturally misspelled and mispronounced, after 
the white people appeared, until it became ** Mohicans " 
and " Mohegans." A body of these Indians crossed the 
Hudson and gradually overspread the country that is 
now New England. Their characteristics seem to have 
varied as do those of white people, some tribes being 
nomadic, and others having a strong attachment to the 
place of their nativity. 

The Maine Indians were divided into different small 

STO. OF MAINE — 2 17 



i8 

tribes, those living along the Penobscot being called 
Tarratines or Penobscots. They claimed all the terri- 
tory bordering on the river, from its source to the sea; 
and the Penobscot Mountains, now known as the Cam- 
den Hills, served as a natural fortress to separate them 
from their enemies on the west. They were a powerful 
tribe, valorous but discreet, inclined to avoid hostilities 
with the English, but always preferring the French as 
neighbors. 

Chief among the tribes of the Abenaques were the 
Wawenocks. The name signifies " very brave, fearing 
nothing." Captain John Smith relates that the Wawe- 
nocks, besides being active, strong, and healthy, were 
very witty, a most unusual characteristic for Indians. 

The Bashaba, ruler of all the Abenaques, had the 
Wawenocks for his immediate subjects. He lived in 
the region about Pemaquid, and it was here that No- 
rumbega, the wonderful Indian city or town which tra- 
dition tells of, was located. 

The name " Norumbega " was originally given to the 
territory claimed by Spain, including the whole eastern 
coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. Afterwards the 
name was applied to New England alone, then to 
Maine, and at last to the region of the Penobscot River 
only. It appears as Arambe in a Spanish document of 
1523, likewise as Arambec, and is spoken of as having 
been discovered by Giovanni Verrazano. 

Students of Indian tongues declared that the word 
meant the ''place of a fine city." Sometimes, in the 
ancient chronicles, it appears as a great region, some- 
times as a magnificent city, with towers and palaces. 



19 




Mark L'Escorbat, a French attorney, writes, in 1609: 
" If this beautiful town ever existed in nature, I should 
hke to know who pulled it down; for there is nothing 
but huts here, made of pickets, and covered with the 
bark of trees or with skins/' 

Champlain, in his "Voyages," writes: "The savages 
here, having entered into an alliance with us, guided 
us to their river, Pentagoet, as they call 
it. I believe that this river is one which 
many navigators and historians call No- 
rumbegue, and that most of them have 
described it as grand and spacious ; it 
is also related that there is a large town 
there, thickly populated with adroit and 
skillful savages, who manufacture cotton 
thread." 

That the savages, as we know them, at 
that time should have been able to manufacture cotton 
thread would be almost as strange as that they should be 
able to build a magnificent city. The earliest explorers 
expected to find a passage to India, a " gateway to the 
opulent East," and their imaginations, excited by the 
hope of finding great treasures, invented the magnificent 
city; and it is likely that the Indian manufacturing 
town was drawn from that tale by a more prosaic fancy. 
It is possible, also, that the remarkable beauty of the 
Penobscot River and the region about it, as reported 
by all travelers, had something to do with the fable. 
The Wawenocks, moreover, who inhabited that re- 
gion, were more " adroit and skillful " than any other 
of the Maine tribes. 



Samuel de Champlain. 



20 

These more intelligent Indians were always on the 
side of peace, as were the sagacious chiefs of several 
tribes ; and if their counsels had prevailed, the fierce and 
bloody wars that form the chief stories of the beginnings 
of Maine might have been avoided, although the white 
men seem to have been, at first, the aggressors. 

All the Indian tribes had some religious ideas, varying 
very much, but all crude and childish. The only point 
of unity was that the ideas all clustered about a " Great 
Spirit," who had almost as many names as there were 
tribes. He was called " Glooskap " by the Penobscots, 
and his story was told in a few words by Marie Saksis, 
an old woman of that tribe. 

" Glus-gahbe gave names to everything. He made 
men and gave them life, and made the winds to make 
the waters move. The turtle was his uncle ; the mink, 
Uk-see-meezel, his adopted son ; and Monuikwessos, 
the woodchuck, his grandmother. The beaver built 
a great dam, and Glus-gahbe turned it away and killed 
the beaver. At Moosetchuk he killed a moose. The 
bones may be seen at Bar Harbor, turned to stone. He 
threw the entrails of the moose across the bay to his 
dogs, and they, too, may be seen there to this day, as 
I myself have seen them. And there, too, in the rock, 
are the prints of his bow and arrow." ^ 

Another story, also from the Penobscots, has wit and 
sentiment worthy of a far more enlightened people. 

" Now it came to pass, when Glooskap had conquered 
all his enemies, — even the Kewahqu', who were giants 
and sorcerers, and the M'le'oulin, who were magicians, 

1 Leland's " Legends of the Algonquins." 



21 



and the Pamola, who is the evil spirit of the night air, 
and all manner of ghosts, witches, devils, cannibals, and 
goblins, — that he thought upon what he had done, and 
wondered if his work were at an end. 

" And he said this to a certain woman. But she said : 
* Not so fast. Master, for there yet remains one whom 
no one has ever conquered or got the better of in any 
way, and who will remain unconquered 
to the end of time.' 

" * And w^ho is he? ' inquired the 
Master. 

" ' It is the mighty Wasis,' she 
replied ; * and there he sits ; and 
I warn you if you meddle with him 
you will be in sore trouble.' Now 
Wasis was the baby ; and he sat 
on the floor, sucking a piece of 
maple sugar, greatly contented 
with everything, and J'^l&^i^C^ 



troubling no one. 
*' As the Lord of 
men and beasts had 
never married or 
had a child, he knew 
naught of the way 
of managing chil- 
dren. Therefore he was quite cer- 
tain, as is the wont of such people, that he knew^ all 
about it. So he turned to baby wnth a bewitching 
smile, and bade him come to him. The baby smiled 
again, but did not budge. 





22 

" And the Master spake sweetly, and made his voice 
Hke that of the summer bird ; but it was of no avail, for 
Wasis sat still and sucked his maple sugar. 

" Then the Master frowned and spoke terribly, and 
ordered Wasis to come crawling to him immediately. 
And baby burst out into crying and yelling, but did not 
move, for all that. 

" Then, since he could do but one thing more, the 
Master had recourse to magic. He used his most awful 
spells, and sang the songs which raise the dead and scare 
the devils. And Wasis sat and looked on admiringly, 
and seemed to find it very interesting; but, all the 
same, he never moved an inch. 

" So Glooskap gave it up in despair, and Wasis, sit- 
ting on the floor in the sunshine, went * Goo ! goo ! ' and 
crowed. And to this day, when you see a babe, well 
contented, going * Goo! goo!' and crowing, and no one 
can tell why, know that it is because he remembers the 
time when he overcame the Master, who had conquered 
all the world. For of all the beings that have ever been 
since the beginning, baby is alone the invincible one." 

It is astonishing, and shows the strange contradictions 
of the Indian character, that so pretty and gentle a 
legend should originate in a race so barbarous and 
bloodthirsty. 

Such were the strange people who inhabited Maine, 
having inherited the land from their fathers and grand- 
fathers, when the first white men set foot upon its 
shores. 



III. HOW CAPTAIN WEYMOUTH KIDNAPED 

THE NATIVES. 

CAPTAIN GEORGE WEYMOUTH, in command 
of the ArcJiangcl, a fine, large ship, sailed from 
the English Downs for America on the 31st of March, 
1605. The reason given out for the expedition was the 
old desire to find a northwest passage to India; but it 
was an open secret that its real object was to keep an 
eye upon the French, and establish some English settle- 
ments in desirable localities. 

On the iith of May Captain Weymouth came in 
sight of the American coast near Cape Cod. Finding 
himself among shoals, he sailed northwardly for a few 
days, and anchored on the north side of a large island, 
"as fair land to fall in with as could be desired," he 
reported. Sea fowl were plenty, and the sailors caught 
thirty large cod and haddock. They remained several 
days on the island, and "took plenty of salmon and other 
fishes of great bigness, good lobsters, rockfish, plaice, 
and lumps," and an abundance of mussels, some of which 
contained pearls, fourteen being taken from a single 
shell. Weymouth and his men also " digged a garden, 
sowed pease and barley and garden seeds, which, in 
sixteen days, grew up eight inches, although this was 

23 



24 



'-'•ttio.r 



but the crust of the ground, and much inferior to the 
mold we afterwards found on the main." 

The adventurers were greatly delighted with the 
country they had found. Weymouth writes that many 
who had been travelers in sundry countries and had seen 
most famous rivers affirmed them not comparable to this, 
" the most beautiful, rich, large, secure harboring river 
that the world affordeth." When this was written they 
were on the Penobscot, probably as far up as Belfast 
Bay. 

Their first relations with the Indians were very friendly, 
and certainly should have been satisfactory to the visit- 
ors, who relate that one Indian gave them forty skins 
of beaver, otter, and sable, for articles of five shillings' 
value. 

The Indians were finally induced to visit the ship, and 
showed great curiosity at everything they saw. Captain 
Weymouth, for their entertainment, and also, perhaps, 

in order to impress them 
with a sense of his ex- 
traordinary powers, 
magnetized the point 
of his sword, and 
with it took up nee- 
dles and knives. 
The Indians re- 
garded this as mag- 
ic, but the process 
of writing seemed 
to them even more 
marvelous. Thev 




25 

watched with amazement, and even with fear, the writ- 
ing down of the names of the articles bought and sold. 

Two of the Indians lunched on board the ship, and 
found the pewter dishes magnificent. They asked to 
be allowed to carry some green pease — to them a new 
and delicious dainty — home to their squaws. 

When the white men returned the visit, the Indians 
built a great camp fire, the highest mark of hospitality, 
and gathered around it in solemn silence. They care- 
fully covered the seats around the fire with deerskin 
cushions, and then offered pipes and tobacco — such 
good cheer as they had — to their guests. 

They displayed their bows and arrows, perhaps with 
some such private motives as may have moved Captain 
Weymouth to show them his necromancy. The bows 
were made of the toughest wood of the forest, the art 
of selecting and preparing it being handed down from 
one generation to another. It needed tough muscles, 
too, and trained ones, to use the bows, but from the 
right hands an arrow could be sped with fearful force. 
The javelins were made of wood, and their manufacture 
was a matter of great skill and of especial pride. They 
were barbed with bone, and the barbs were often poisoned. 

Although of small avail against the firearms of civili- 
zation, these Indian weapons were capable of terrible 
execution upon a surprised or unarmed foe. Lurking 
in ambush, the savages hurled them to a great distance, 
and with an accuracy of aim that seemed almost mirac- 
ulous. When they obtained muskets and guns of the 
white men, the skill in aiming which they had acquired 
with their arrows made them formidable foes. 



26 

On a certain nip-ht when the Indians entertained the 
ArcJiangcr s company around their camp fire, Owen 
Griffin, one of the men, was left on shore as a watch- 
man. This may have been done because Weymouth 
really suspected treachery on the part of the savages, 
but the fact that three of the Indians were taken on 
board the ship as hostages for Griffin makes it seem 
probable that Weymouth was merely maturing his 
plans for kidnaping some Indians. He openly ac- 
knowledges that this was his intention from the begin- 
ning, and even justifies the deed, as do, astonishingly, 
some historians of a later and more enlightened time, 
on the ground of its great benefit to humanity. That 
the end justifies the means is apt to be very dangerous 
doctrine, as it is certainly a very hard one to accept in 
the case of the poor Indians, torn from home and kin- 
dred by worse than savage treachery. 

While on the coast, Weymouth treated with great 
kindness all the natives he encountered. Those whom 
he captured, after recovering from their surprise and 
alarm, and perceiving by their kind usage that no harm 
was intended them, became contented and tractable, 
and very willing to impart the information desired of 
them. 

To return to the story of the kidnaping : Owen Griffin 
remained on shore, and the three Indian hostages slept 
on the orlop deck of the ArcJiaugel, with a pile of 
old sails for a bed. They showed great fear of the 
EngH.sh dogs, and the dogs, on their part, always mani- 
fested a want of sympathy with Indians. 

The next day was Sunday ; and when the Indian 



27 

canoes set out for the ship with articles for barter, Cap- 
tain Weymouth waved a signal for them to go back. 
There being no Sundays in the savage calendar, this 
was a mystery which they, doubtless, thought might 
savor of the treachery of which they were constantly 
suspicious. But they returned, and did not venture a 
second time toward the ship that day. The next morn- 
ing the canoes appeared again, and the occupants made 
signs to indicate that the chief of their tribe was wait- 
ing a little farther up the bay with fine furs to barter. 
Captain Weymouth set out in a boat with eight men to 
find the chief; but, as always, he suspected treacher}', 
which is, perhaps, not strange, when one considers what 
his own designs were. So he sent Owen Griffin on 
shore in the canoe in which the in\itation had been 
brought, retaining as hostage one of the three Indians 
who had paddled it. 

The Indians gave a very full and candid description 
of their chief's situation and surroundings. He had two 
hundred and eighty followers with him, armed, as 
usual, with bows and arrows. He had also a great 
pack of Indian dogs and tamed wolves. 

When Owen Griffin reached the place, there were no 
furs at all for traffic. The Indians urged him to go 
farther up the stream, to the place where they said their 
furs were stored. It seems unlikely that they had any 
treacherous designs, for if they had they could have 
accomplished them as well where they were as farther 
up the river; and Captain Weymouth held an Indian as 
hostage in his boat. But Owen Griffin had not been 
chosen for his bravery. He was afraid, and he re- 



28 

turned to Captain Weymouth with a report which 
made the captain think it unsafe to land. 

The natives, on their part, felt increased suspicions 
that the white visitors meant them harm. When two 
canoes, with three Indians in each, paddled near to the 
ship, Captain Weymouth tried in vain to lure them on 
board. When he extended a dish of green pease, they 
seized them, but paddled away to a distance and de- 
voured them. After that two in the other canoe ven- 
tured to go on board. 

When one of the pea- eaters, a fine, athletic young 
brave, politely returned with the dish. Captain Wey- 
mouth beguiled him on board, and induced him to go 
to the cabin below, where the two other Indians were 
being entertained. There the three poor savages soon 
found that their suspicions of treachery were realized, 
for the cabin door was locked against them. 

These three being secured, the enterprising Captain 
Weymouth straightway set to work to kidnap some 
more. There had been six Indians in the canoes, and 
three of them were now on shore. He sent out a boat, 
manned by eight of the strongest sailors, to pretend 
that they wished to buy furs. They carried another 
can of pease. The savages' vulnerable point seems to 
have been an appetite for pease. 

One of the Indians took to the woods and escaped, but 
the other two were persuaded to sit down before their 
fire with the white visitors ; and they all ate together like 
brothers until suddenly, watching their opportunity, the 
stout sailors sprang upon their victims and, after a ter- 
rible struggle, dragged them to their boat and finally on 



29 




board the ship. "Thus," triumphantly writes Rosier, 

who kept the journal of the voyage, " we shipped five 

savas^es and two .^ , ; 

canoes, with all 

their bows and 

arrows." 

One of these 
young Indians 
was a chief, and , 
two others were 
of rank in their 
tribe. They had "' 
come from their > 
home at Pema- 
quid to visit the '^~ 

white strangers, of whom they had heard. The names 
of four of these captives were Tisquantum, Nahanada, 
Skitwarroes, and Assacomet, one being a sagamore, or 
head chief. The first three Weymouth delivered to 
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was at that time the gov- 
ernor of Plymouth, England ; the other two were 
probably assigned to Sir John Popham, an English judge 
who w^as much interested in American affairs. 

Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who has been called the father 
of Enghsh colonization in New England, kept the three 
Indians in his family for several years. He treated 
them with great kindness, and had them taught the 
English language ; and he so well improved the oppor- 
tunity given him to acquire a knowledge of the region 
visited by Weymouth that he says: "The capture of 
these Indians must be acknowledged the means, under 



'■A 



30 

God, of putting on foot ^md giving life to all our 
plantations." 

It was intended that the Indians should be returned 
to their homes, and when the Plymouth Company was 
formed, two of them, Nahanada and Assacomet, were 
placed on board a ship which sailed from Bristol, Eng- 
land, for the coast of Maine. The ship encountered a 
Spanish fleet, and was captured — England being then 
at war with Spain — and carried off, a prize, to Spain, 
which country had already learned to make slaves of 
the Indians, as many as could be caught. So the second 
captivity of these two poor Indians was far worse than 
their first. 

But there were then many Spanish vessels sailing to 
the American shores for fishing or trading, and in some 
one of these Nahanada was so fortunate as to find his 
way back to his native land. It was Nahanada that 
was supposed to be a chief of high rank. 
. When, in 1607, the Plymouth Company attempted to 
plant a colony at the mouth of the Sagadahoc River, 
in Maine, Skitwarroes, another of the kidnaped Indians, 
was sent over on board a vessel called the JlLijy andJoJin. 

The ship came to anchor near Pemaquid, and the 
captain, manning a boat, took Skitwarroes as a guide, 
ajitd rowed across the bay to the mainland. Skitwarroes 
led the way to a little Indian town in what is now Bristol. 
But the Indians had learned from Weymouth's kidnap- 
ing to regard the English as fiends. The air was filled 
with the shrieks of squaws and children, and the men 
prepared for a vigorous defense. Skitwarroes tried to 
reassure them, but m his English dress they failed to 



31 

recognize him. But when Nahanada caught siglit of 
his fellow-prisoner, he rushed into his arms, and the 
terrified Indians were soon calmed by the influence of 
their two chiefs. 

We hear, later in the history of the colonies, of these 
three Indians, Nahanada, Skitwarroes, and Assacomet, 
who had made so strange and painful a journey into the 
great world of the white man ; and they seem to have 
acted the part of peacemakers between their people and 
the Europeans. 

Tisquantum, also, or Squantum, as he is called by 
later historians, was returned to his native country, and 
was the first Indian who visited the Pilgrims of the 
Plymouth colony. He had forgotten or forgiven the 
treachery of the English, and was the firm friend of 
the Pilgrims, acting as interpreter between them and 
the savages, and doing much to preserve peace and 
friendly relations. 

But let us return to the A7xhangcl, with her im- 
prisoned Indians. Weymouth was preparing to set sail, 
having no desire to linger until the fate of five of 
their number should become known to the Indians, 
when two large canoes were discovered, making for the 
ship. They were highly decorated canoes, and the 
Indians in them were elaborately painted and gor- 
geously dressed in their barbaric fashion. It was evi- 
dently an embassy of great importance, for it bore all 
the marks of that display and ceremony which the wild, 
forest-reared Indians loved so well. 

One of them even wore a coronet in which glass 
beads, the feathers of wild fowl, and real pearls were 



32 

somewhat queerly but not ineffectively mingled. And 
this was not merely an ornament with which any one 
who chose might adorn himself, but showed that the 
w^earer was of royal blood. They came with an invita- 
tion to Captain Weymouth to visit, in his ship, their 
great lord, the head chief of the Pemaquid tribes. They 
came on board the Archangel, and were entertained 
upon the deck, quite unconscious of their miserable 
captive brothers below. 

That Captain Weymouth did not seize them and 
carry them away captive was probably due only to his 
lack of accommodation for any more prisoners than he 
had. He declined the invitation, but dismissed them with 
much politeness and many assurances of friendly esteem. 
He set sail immediately after the departure of the em- 
bassy, and sailed westerly along the Maine coast, of 
which he has left an enthusiastic description. 

While the Archangel lay at anchor in the Sagada- 
hoc, an Indian canoe appeared, that had followed on 
her track as soon as the kidnaping of the Indians was 
discovered. It was rowed by many Indians, and in it 
was the Indian prince, who had come to try to rescue 
his countrymen. 

His supplications were, of course, all in vain. Wey- 
mouth invited him to the religious ceremony of 
planting a cross at the mouth of the Androscoggin 
River, where he said to him: "It is in the name of 
Jesus Christ that I have kidnaped your friends. It is 
Christianity which authorizes these deeds. Some of 
my countrymen will soon appear to teach you to em- 
brace this religion." 



33 

On the homeward voyage of the ArcJiangcl a dis- 
covery was made which has proved a great blessing to 
the world. When about a hun- 
dred miles from land, the 
ship ran into shoal water, 
the depth dwindlinj 
gradually to less 
than twenty-five 
fathoms. In this 
shoal water the 
ArcJiaugel was 
one day wholly 
becalmed, and a 
sailor, Thomas 
King, whose name 
should be held in remem- 
brance as that of a great discoverer, was moved by what 
old Izaak Walton calls *' the primal, honest instinct of 
humanity to fish." He cast out a line, and drew up a 
codfish of quite astonishing size. Other sailors followed 
his example, and fine fat codfish were caught almost as 
fast as the fishermen's arms could move. For then, as 
now, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland swarmed with 
fish. 




STO. OF MAINE — 3 



IV. FATHER BIARD'S STORY. 

MOST historians assert that Father Biard and 
I'^ather Masse, the two Jesuit missionaries who 
had quarreled with Biencourt, the lordly ruler of Port 
Royal, departed thence by themselves directly to Mount 
Desert, which the Indians had represented to be "a 
goodly land abounding in game and fish." The facts 
as set forth in Father Biard's simple and dramatic nar- 
rative, in the "Jesuit Relations," are quite different. 

Although the priests had had difficulties, even on the 
ship that brought them from France, with Pourtrin- 
court, the first commander of Port Royal, who had told 
them it was " his part to rule them on earth, and theirs 
only to guide him to heaven," and afterwards with Bien- 
court, Pourtrincourt's son, who had threatened them 
with the whipping post, they seem to have still lingered 
at Port Royal until aid and countenance came to them 
in the shape of De Monts's surrender of his patent to 
Mme. de Guercheville. She was a woman famed among 
the attendants of Marie de Medicis for her beauty and 
her piety. The great desire of her heart was to plant 
the Roman Catholic faith in the wilds of America, and 
in the spring of 1613 she sent her agent, M. Saussaye, 
to take possession of the land in her name, and to set 
up her arms. 

34 



35 



M. Saussaye evadently proceeded first to Port Royal 
(now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), and there the two priests 
embarked with him to seek a place where a French 
settlement could be established under more favorable 
auspices than had attended the one at Port Royal. 
Two other priests, Father Quentin and Father du Thet, 
were of the party. 

This is the tale as told by Father Biard himself: 
" We were detained five days at Port Royal by adverse 
winds, when, a favorable northeaster having arisen, we 
set out with the intention of sailing up Pentagoet 
[Penobscot] River to a place called Kadesquit [Bangor], 
which had been chosen for our new residence, and 
which possessed great advantages for this purpose. But 
the good God willed otherwise, for when we had reached 
the southeastern coast of the island of Menan the wea- 
ther changed, and the sea was covered with a fog so 
dense that we could not distinguish day from night. 

" We were greatly alarmed, for this place is full of 
breakers and rocks, upon which we feared, in the dark- 
ness, our vessel might drift. The wind not permitting 
us to put out to sea, we remained in this position two 
days and two nights, veering sometimes to one side, 
sometimes to another, as God inspired us. 

" Our tribulation led us to pray to God to deliver us 
from danger and send us to some place where we might 
contribute to His glory. He heard us in His mercy, for 
on the same evening we began to discover the stars, 
and in the morning the fog had cleared away. We then 
discovered that we were near the coast of Mount Desert, 
an island which the savages call Pemetic. 



36 

"The pilot steered toward the eastern shore, and 
landed us in a large and beautiful harbor. We returned 
thanks to God, elevating the cross, and singing praises, 
with the holy sacrifice of the mass. We named the 
place and harbor St. Saviour." This was probably 
Northeast Harbor. 

" Now, in this place (St. Saviour) a violent quarrel 
arose between our sailors and the other passengers. 
The cause of it was that the charter granted and the 
agreement made in France were to the effect that the 
said sailors should be bound to put into any port in 
Acadia that we should designate, and should remain 
there three months. 

" The sailors insisted that they had arrived at a port 
in Acadia, and that the term of three months ought to 
date from this arrival. To this the answer was that 
this port was not the one designated, which was Kades- 
quit, and that therefore the time that they were in St. 
Saviour should not be taken into account. 

" There was much argument over this question, and 
while it was still unsettled the savages made a fire, in 
order that we might see the smoke. This signal meant 
that they had observed us, and wished to see if we 
needed them, which we did. 

" The pilot found an opportunity to let them know 
that the fathers from Port Royal were in his ship. 

" The savages replied that they would be very glad 
to see one whom they had known at Pentagoet two 
years before. This was I, Father Biard, and I went 
immediately to see them, and inquired the route to 
Kadesquit, telling them that we intended to live there. 



37 



" ' But,' said they, ' why do you not remain, instead, 
with us, wlio have as good a place as Kadesquit?' 

" They then began to praise ^ 

their settlement, assuring us "'"ifj vJ^t'^^^T #?, 
that it was so healthful and "^'^''^S^fel?^! 



i^ 




so pleasant and so delightful 

in every wa}^ that when the natives 

were ill anywhere else they were 

brought there and 

were quickly cured. 

"These eulogies 
did not greatly im- 
press us, because 
we knew well that 
the savages, like 
other people, some- 
times overrated 
their own posses- 
sions. Neverthe- 
less, they knew 
how to induce us to remain, 
for they said : ' You must come, for our sagamore, Asti- 
cou, is dangerously ill, and if you do not come he will die 
without baptism, and will not go to heaven ; and you will 
be the cause of it, for he wishes to be baptized.' 

" This reason finally persuaded us, since there were 
but three leagues to travel, and it would be no greater 
loss of time than a single afternoon. . 

" We embarked in the savages' canoe, with Sieur 
de la Motte and Simon, the interpreter. When we 
arrived at Asticou's wigwam, we found him ill, but not 



/jiiiQoluvTna^tr 






38 

dang-erously so, for he was suffering only from rheuma- 
tism. And after discovering this, we decided to pay a 
visit to the place which the Indians had boasted was so 
much better than Kadesquit for Frenchmen. 

** We found that the savages had indeed reasonable 
grounds for their eulogies. We felt very well satisfied 
with it ourselves, and having carried these tidings to 
the rest of the crew, it v/as unanimously agreed that we 
should remain there, and not seek farther, seeing that 
God himself seemed to intend it, by the train of happy 
accidents that had occurred, and by the miraculous cure 
of a child, which I shall relate elsewhere. This place 
is a beautiful hill, sloping gently to the seashore, and 
supplied with water by a spring on each side. 

" The ground comprises from twenty-five to thirty 
acres, covered with grass which in some places reaches 
the height of a man. It fronts the south and east toward 
Pentagoet Bay, into which are discharged the waters of 
several pretty streams abounding in fish. The land is 
rich and fertile. The port and harbor are the finest 
possible, in a position commanding the entire coast ; the 
harbor especially is as smooth as a pond, being shut in 
by the large island of Mount Desert, besides being sur- 
rounded by certain small islands which break the force 
of the winds and waves and fortify the entrance. 

" It is large enough to hold any fleet, and is navigable 
for the largest ships up to a cable's length from the 
shore. It is in latitude 44}4^ N., a position more 
northerly than that of Bordeaux.^ 

1 This was evidently Fernalds Point, on the western side of Somes 
Sound. 



39 

" When we had landed in this place, and planted the 
cross, we set to work ; and with the work began our 
disputes, the omen and origin of our misfortunes. The 
cause of these disputes was that our captain, La Saus- 
saye, wished to attend to agriculture, and our other 
leaders besought him not to occupy the workmen in 
that manner and thereby delay the erection of dwellings 
and fortifications. He would not comply with their 
requests ; and from these disputes arose otliers, which 
lasted until the English obliged us to make peace in the 
manner I am about to relate. 

" The English colonists in Virginia are in the habit of 
coming every year to the islands of Pencoit, twenty- five 
leagues from St. Saviour, in order to provide food [fish] 
for the winter. While on their way, as usual, in the 
summer of 1613, they were overtaken out at sea by 
fogs and mists, which in this region often overspread 
both land and sea in summer. These lasted some days, 
in which the tide drifted them gradually farther than 
they intended. They were about eighty leagues farther 
in New France than they supposed, but they did not 
recognize the place." 

Father Biard means, of course, within the limits of 
the territory granted to De Monts and now transferred 
to Mme. de Guercheville. 

Samuel Argall, whose ship was now swooping down 
upon the little French settlement on the shore of Somes 
Sound, was nominally a trader, but practically a pirate. 
He went fishing in a vessel manned by eighty sailors 
and carrying fourteen guns. He plundered every 
French ship that he could lay hold of, and piously prayed 



40 

for the blessing of God upon his voyages. Ha\ ing 
now lost his reckoning, he improved the unexpected 
opportunity to rob and murder tlie French. 

Father Biard continues: "Some savages observed 
their vessel, and went to meet them, supposing them 
to be Frenchmen in search of us. The Englishmen 
understood nothing of what the savages said, but con- 
jectured from their signs that there was a vessel near, 
and that this vessel was French. They understood the 
word 'Normans' which the savages called us, and in 
the polite gestures of the natives they recognized the 
French ceremonies of courtesy. 

"Then the Englishmen, who were in need of provi- 
sions and of everything else, ragged, half naked, and in 
search of plunder, inquired carefully how large our 
vessel was, how many cannon we liad, at^.d how many 
men; and having received a satisfactory answer, uttered 
cries of joy, demonstrating that they had found what 
they wanted, and that they intended to attack us. 

" The savages did not so interpret their demonstra- 
tions, however, for they supposed the Englishmen to 
be our friends who earnestly desired to see us. Accord- 
ingly, one of them guided the Englishmen to our vessel. 

"As soon as the Englishmen saw us, they began to 
prepare for combat, and their guide then saw that he 
had made a mistake, and began to weep, and to curse 
tho.se who had deceived him. Many times afterwards 
he wept and implored pardon for his error, of us and of 
the others, because they wished to avenge our misfortune 
on him, believing that he had acted through malice. 

" On seeing this vessel approach us, we knew not 



41 

whether we were to meet friends or enemies, French- 
men or foreigners. The pilot, therefore, went forward 
in a sloop to reconnoiter, while the rest were arming 
themselves. La Saussaye remained on shore, and with 
liim the greater number of the men. Lieutenant La 
Motte, Ensign Ronfere, Sergeant Joubert, and the rest 
went on board the ship. 

" The English ship moved with the swiftness of an 
arrow, havinij; the wind astern. It was hun^ at the 
waist with red, the arms of England floated over it, and 
three trumpets and two drums were ready to sound. 
Our pilot, who had gone forward to reconnoiter, did not 
return to the ship, fearing, as he said, to fall into their 
hands, to avoid which he rowed himself around an 
island. 

" Thus the ship did not contain one half its crew, and 
was defended only by ten men, of whom but one. Cap- 
tain Flory, had had any experience of naval contests. 
Although not lacking in prudence or courage, the cap- 
tain had not time to prepare for conflict, nor had his 
crew. There was not even time to weigh anchor so as 
to disengage the ship, which is the first step to be taken 
in sea fights. It would, however, have been of little 
use to weigh the anchor, since the sails were fastened ; 
for, as it was summer, they had been arranged as an 
awning to shade the decks. 

"This mishap, however, had a good result; for, our 
men being sheltered during the combat, and out of reach 
of the Englishmen's guns, fewer of them were killed or 
wounded. 

*' As soon as the Englishmen appr(^ached, our sailors 



42 



hailed them ; but they repHed only by threatening cries, 
and by discharges of musketry and cannon. They had 
fourteen pieces of artillery and sixty artillerymen, who 
ranged themselves along the side of their vessel, firing 
rapidly without taking aim. 

** The first discharge was terrible. The whole ship 
was shrouded in fire and smoke. On our side the 

guns remained silent. Captain Flor\' 
shouted out, ' Put the cannon 
position!' but the gunner 
was absent. Father Gi)- 
A. bert du Thet, who 

had never been 
guilty of cowardice 
in his life, hearing 
le captain's order, and 
seeing that no one obeyed, 
took the match and fired the cannon as loudly as the 
enemy's. The misfortune was that he did not aim 
carefully. 

" The Englishmen, after their first attack, made read}/ 
to board our vessel. Captain Flory cut the cable, and 
thus arrested, for a time, the progress of the enemy. 
They then fired another volley, and in this Du Thet 
was wounded by a musket, and fell across the helm. 

" Captain Flory and three others were also wounded, 
and they cried out that they surrendered. 

" 71ie Englishmen, on hearing this cry, went into 
their boat to board our vessel, when our men impru- 
dently rushed into theirs, in order to put off to shore 
before the arrival of the visitors. The conquerors cried 




43 

out to them to return, or they would fire on them, and 
two of our men, in their terror, threw themselves into 
the water and were drowned, either because they were 
wounded or, more probably, were shot while in the 
water. 

" They were both promising young men, one named 
Le Moine, from Dieppe, and the other named Nenen, 
from Beauvais. Their bodies were found nine days 
afterwards, and carefully interred. Such was the his- 
tory of the capture of our vessel. 

" The victorious English made a landing at the place 
where we had begun to erect our tents and dwellings, 
and searched Captain Flory to find his commission, say- 
ing that the land was theirs, but if we could show that 
we had acted in good faith, and under the authority of 
our prince, they would not drive us away, since they did 
not wish to imperil the amicable relations between our 
two sovereigns. 

" The trouble was that they did not find La Saus- 
saye, but they seized his desk, searched it carefully, 
and having found our commission and royal letters, 
seized them. Then, putting everything in its place, 
they closed and locked the desk. 

" On the next day, when he saw La Saussaye, the 
English captain greeted him politely, and then asked 
to see his commission. La Saussaye replied that his 
papers were in his desk, which was accordingly brought 
to him, and he found that it was locked and in perfect 
order, but the papers were missing. 

"The English captain immediately changed his tone 
and manner, saying: ' Then, sir, you are nnposing upon 



44 

us! You give us to understand that you hold a com- 
mission from your king, and yet you can produce no 
evidence of it. You are ah rogues and pirates, and 
deserve to be executed.' He then gave his soldiers 
permission to plunder us, in which work they spent the 
entire afternoon. 

" We witnessed the destruction of our property from 
the shore, the Englishmen having fastened our vessels 
to theirs ; for we had two, a ship, and a boat newly con- 
structed and equipped. We were thus reduced to a 
miserable condition, and this was not all. Next day 
they landed and robbed us of all we .still possessed, 
destroying also our clothing and other things. 

*' At one time they committed some personal violence 
on two of our people, which so enraged them that they 
fled into the woods like poor crazed creatures, half naked 
and without any food, not knowing what was to become 
of them. 

" I have told you that Father du Thet was wounded 
by a musket shot during the fight. The Englishmen, 
on entering our ship, placed him under the care of 
their surgeon, with the other wounded men. The sur- 
geon was a Catholic and a very charitable man, and 
he treated us with great kindness. The captain allowed 
Father du Thet to be carried ashore, so that he had an 
opportunity to receive the last sacraments, and to praise 
the just and merciful God, in company with his brethren. 
He died with much resignation, calmness, and devo- 
tion, twenty-four hours after he was wounded. He 
was buried, the next day, at the foot of a large cross 
which we had erected on our arrival. 



45 

" It was not until then that the EngHshmen recog- 
nized the Jesuits to be priests. I, Father Biard, and 
Father Ennemond Masse went to the ship to speak to 
the Engh'sh captain, and frankly explained to him that 
we were Jesuits who had come to this heathen land to 
convert the savages to the true faith, and implored 
him, by the Redeemer who died for us all, to leave us 
in peace. From that time the captain made Father 
Masse and me share his table, sho.wing us much kind- 
ness and respect. But one thing annoyed him greatly 
— the escape of the pilot and sailors, of whom he could 
hear nothing. 

" The pilot was a native of Rouen named La Pailleur. 
The English captain was an able and artful man, a gen- 
tleman and a man of courage. 

*' It is difficult to believe how much sorrow we ex- 
perienced at this time, for we did not know what was to 
be our fate. On the one hand, we expected either 
death or slavery from the English, and, on the other, to 
remain in this country, and live an entire year among 
the savages, seemed to us a lingering and painful death. 
But we did not see any hope before us, and we did not 
see how we could live in such a desert." 

La Saussaye, Father Masse, and thirteen others were 
mercilessly cast off in an open boat. Being joined 
among the islands by the pilot in his boat, they made 
their way eastward by the aid of oars, until, on the 
southern coast of Nova Scotia, they found two trading 
vessels, and secured passage to Saint- Male. Father 
Biard and thirteen others were carried prisoners to 
Virginia, where Sir Thomas Dale, governor of Virginia, 



46 

threatened to hang them, and would doubtless have 
made good his threat if Argall had not, at length, been 
moved to confess that he had stolen the commission. 

They were at last allowed to take passage on a vessel 
bound for the Azores, and from those islands the captain 
of the vessel decided to sail to a port in Wales. There 
Father Biard went also, and was favorably received by 
the Protestant clergymen. 

Later he returned to France, and became a professor 
in a theological seminary. But a more roving life w^as 
better suited to his taste, and he was soon made a 
chaplain in the French army, where he remained until 
his death. 

Mme. de Guercheville soon abandoned or was bereft 
of her claim. M. Cadillac next received from Louis 
XIV. a grant of a hundred thousand acres on both sides 
of the bay and comprising a large part of the island of 
Mount Desert. 

Cadillac was always proud of his domain, although 
he remained in the region but a little time. He ob- 
tained many offices and honors in the New World, and 
was at one time governor of Louisiana; and as long as 
he lived he took to himself the high-sounding title, 
Lord of Mount Desert. But he never attempted to 
make any settlement upon the island, and, indeed, there 
never was another French settlement there, although, 
many years after M. Cadillac's death, Mme. Gregoire 
proved herself to be his lineal descendant, and, estab- 
lishing a claim to a part of his possessions, came from 
France with her husband, and made her home at Mount 
Desert. 



47 

They settled at Hulls Cove, near Bar Harbor. The 
island had by that time been partially settled by fisher- 
men, but it was still a half-savage land, and the high- 
born French emigrants must have led a strange and 
lonely life. M, Gregoire was a recluse, or such is the 
impression of him that remains with the descendants of 
the fishermen who knew him; but Mme. Gregoire was 
a spirited and energetic woman, who affiliated with 
fisherfolk and Indians, and made the best of the wild 
life that she had, perhaps ignorantly, chosen. They 
never returned to France, although their children did. 
Their bodies are buried outside the little cemetery at 
Hulls Cove, — outside probably because they were 
Roman Catholics, — and the wild roses, that know no 
creeds, have wandered through the rude cemetery fence 
and impartially bedecked their graves. 



V. THE STORY OF EPENOW AND 
ASSACOMET. 

IX years after Weymouth's kidnaping exploit, Cap- 
tain Edward Harlow was sent from England to 
explore Cape Cod and the region round about it. 

He sailed first to Monhegan, and, anchoring in its 
harbor, he enticed three Indians on board his ship, and 
seized them as captives. His methods were less cere- 
monious than Captain Weymouth's, and his avowed 
purpose was to sell them as slaves, or to make money 
by them in some other way. The names of the pris- 
oners were Peckmo, Monopet, and Peckenine. 

Peckmo was an athletic young brave, and after a fierce 
struggle he broke away from his captors, leaped over- 
board, and swam ashore. He aroused all the Indians 
within hail, and they rushed fiercely to the rescue of 
the captured Monopet and Peckenine. Canoes sur- 
rounded the ship ; but arrows were no match for the 
firearms of the white men, who only mocked their 
efforts. But, sweeping the deck with their whizzing 
arrows, they succeeded in cutting away the longboat of 
the ship, that was floating at the stern. They carried 
tlie boat ashore, filled it witli sand, and placed it in a 
position where they could defend it with their arrows. 

When Harlow sent a band of armed men to recover 

48 



49 

the boat, the savages fought ciesperately ; it is probable 
that some of them were killed, and three of Harlow's 
men were seriously wounded; but Harlow went away 
without his boat. 

Sailing off with his two captives, he made his way to 
Cape Cod, aiid there lured more of the unsuspecting- 
savages on board his ship by offering enticing wares for 
barter. He secured three more captives, locking, the 
oaken doors of the cabin upon them, as he had done 
upon the others. The names of these Cape Cod Indians 
were Sackaweston, Coneconum, and Epenow. 

It is strange to know that the Maine Indians and 
those from Cape Cod could not understand one another's 
language, and their habits and customs were almost as 
different as their speech. But the different tribes all 
over the country soon had one strong sentiment in 
common — hatred and distrust of the white man. Har- 
low carried all five of the kidnaped Indians to London, 
where he exhibited Epenow, who seems to have been 
the most clever and tractable of them, in a show. 

Sir P^rdinando Gorges, w^ho had interested himself in 
Weymouth's captives, finally took Epenow also under 
his protection. " There came one Harlow unto me," 
writes Sir Ferdinando, " bringing with him a native of 
the island of Capawick, a place seated to the southward 
of Cape Cod, whose name was Epenow. He was a 
person of goodly stature, strong and well proportioned. 
This man was taken upon the main by force, with some 
twenty-nine others, by a ship of London, which en- 
deavored to sell them as slaves in Spain. But it 
being understood that they were Americans, and unfit 

STO. OF MAIXF. — 4 



50 

for their uses, they would not meddle with them. This 
Epenow was one of them whom they refused, wherein 
they expressed more worth than those that brought 
them to the market. How Captain Harlow came to be 
in possession of this savage I know not; ,but I under- 
stood by others how he had been shown in London 
for a wonder. It is true, as I have said, that he was a 
goodly man, of a brave aspect, stout, and sober in his 
demeanor, and had learned so much English as to 
bid those that wondered at him, * Welcome ! Wei- 
con:ie ! 

Epenow by forming a shrewd plan to get back to his 
own country shov/ed that his ability was not overrated. 
He and Assacomet, who was then still in England, and 
whom he met probably through the kindness of Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, put their heads together and agreed 
to make the English believe that Epenow knew of a gold 
mine in America, in the hope that they might be em- 
ployed to guide an expedition in quest of it. 

They were successful in this deception, and Gorges 
himself sent a ship to Cape Cod, under command of 
Captain Hobson, with Epenow and Assacomet as guides 
to the gold mine. 

Some suspicions seem to have been entertained of the 
sincerity of Epenow and Assacomet, for when the ship 
anchored in the harbor to which Epenow had guided it 
as being within convenient distance from the gold mine, 
the captain treated both Indians as prisoners and would 
not allow them to go ashore. The natives came on 
board the ship in great numbers, and some of the 
brothers of Epenow were among them. 



51 

The story of what happened is told by Gorges's son, 
who accompanied the expecHtion. 

" But Epenow," he writes, " privately had contracted 
with his friends how he miglit make his escape without 
performing what he had undertaken. For tliat cause I 
gave the captain strict charge to endeavor, by all means, 
to prevent his escape. And for the more surety I gave 
order to have three gentlemen of my own kindred to be 
ever at hand with him, clothing him with long garments, 
fitly to be laid hold of, if occasion should require. 

'* Notwithstanding all this, his friends being all come, 
at the time appointed, with twenty canoes, and lying at 




a certain distance with their bows ready, the captain 
calls to them to come on board. But thev not moving, 
he speaks to Epenow to come unto him where he was 
in the forecastle of the ship. Epenow was then in the 
waist of the ship, between two of the gentlemen that had 
him in guard. Suddenly he starts from them, and 
coming to the captain, calls to his friends in English to 
come on board. In the interim he slips himself over- 



52 

board ; and although he was taken hold of by one of 
the company, yet, being a strong and heavy man, he 
could not be staid. He was no sooner in the water 
but the natives, his friends in the boats, sent such a 
shower of arrows, and came, withal, desperately, so near 
the ship, that they carried him away in despite of all the 
musketeers, who were, for the number, as good as our 
nation did afford. And thus were my hopes of that 
particular voyage made void and frustrate." 

Five years after this an English captain, sent by Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, visited the island (supposed to be 
Martha's Vineyard) where this rescue of Epenow took 
place. He met Epenow, who told him triumphantly of 
his escape. Epenow and his friends thought that the 
object of the expedition was to seize him and carry him 
back to England ; and when an armed boat's crew came 
on shore, a skirmish ensued, in which the English captain 
was wounded and, with his crew, driven back to the ship. 

Squantum, the friendly Indian who himself had had 
the experience of being kidnaped, is said to have tried 
to prevent the hostilities. " The Indians would have 
killed me had not Squantum entreated hard in my be- 
half," writes the English captain. 

A little later than this, one Thomas Hunt seized 
twenty-four savages at the mouth of the Kennebec, and 
sold them as slaves at Malaga. The price received is 
said to have been one hundred dollars each. 

Assacomet made his way home to Pemaquid, and we 
hear that he was afterwards the friend of the settlers. 



VI. THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 

THE eyes of many Englishmen were still turned 
toward America — " a fertile, salubrious land," as 
one ancient chronicle describes it. There were some 
who longed for adventure, and some who were greedy 
of wealth ; and the captive Indians carried across the 
ocean had aroused in others the desire to carry Chris- 
tianity to the dark corners oi the earth, and civilize the 
strange barbarians. Moreover, there were not a few 
Englishmen who wanted the country simply because 
France claimed it. 

In 1606, when James I. was King of England, a com- 
pany of gentlemen was formed whose avowed purpose 
was "to propagate God's holy church." After events 
proved that they were not wholly superior to considera- 
tions of personal gain in connection with this pious and 
laudable purpose. 

The company comprised two divisions, one of which 
essayed to settle Virginia and the region thereabout, 
and the other, known as the Plymouth Company, with 
Lord Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges as leaders, 
sent out a ship in August, 1606, to establish a colony 
on the Acadian peninsula, embracing what is now the 
state of Maine. The ship carried thirty-one white men 
and two Indians — Weymouth's captives. England was 

53 



54 

then at war witli Spain, and the vessel was seized by a 
Spanish fleet and carried to Spain. A second vessel 
reached the Maine shores, but was, for some unknown 
reason, unsuccessful in establishing a colony. 

The first division of the council, called the London 
Company, had sent a hundred colonists to Virginia, and 
at the mouth of the James River a permanent settlement 
was established. On the 31st of May, 1607, two ships 
set out from Plymouth, England, with colonists for the 
Northern shores. George Popham, a brother of Lord 
Popham, was in command of one ship, and Raleigh Gil- 
bert, a nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh, of the other. 
They had intended to have three ships, but in conse- 
quence of some difficulty in procuring another, two only 
were dispatched. 

Popham's vessel was called the Gift of God, and Gil- 
bert's the Mary and JoJlii. There were over a hundred 
colonists in these vessels, and large quantities of the 
necessaries of life in a new land. 

These vessels found the Grand Banks of Newfound- 
land a wonderful fishing ground. They stopped three 
hours to fish, and took so many codfish that they could 
have filled their boats. They were " of a most goodly 
size," too, these fish with which the New V/orld's wa- 
ters teemed. " There seems, indeed, to be no limit to 
the good gifts of God in these waters," writes an enthu- 
siastic chronicler of the vovao-e. 

They had directed their course to the island of Mon- 
hegan, but came to anchor at a small island not far from 
Pemaquid, supposed to be Stage Island. They had 
religious services, and read their patent. It was a form 



55 

of government, carefully drafted and adapted to a great 
state. Every colonist and his children were to be 
"citizens of the realm;" the coinage of money was 
made lawful ; and for seven years the importation of all 
useful chattels, armor, and furniture from the British 
dominions was to be allowed free of duty. The colo- 
nists were also given the right to exact taxes and duties 
for their own benefit, and to seize or expel intruders. 

Besides giving thanks to God for their safe arrival, 
and reading their patent, the settlers listened to a ser- 
mon preached by the Rev. Richard Seymour, the chap- 
lain of the company. 

Eight Indian men and a boy visited them upon the 
island. At first these natives showed distrust, but at 
length three of the bolder spirits ventured on board 
the ship. Their reception seems to have been an 
agreeable one, for the next day they returned in a larger 
boat, with a load of fine beaver skins, for which an 
honorable and satisfactory trafiic was made. 

The colonists built some rude cottages on this island, 
and sunk two or three wells ; but thev soon decided 
that the island was too small for a permanent settlemxcnt. 
It is said that on Stage Island one may still see the 
remains of a fort, brick chimneys, and some wells of 
water, and several cellars. The bricks must have come 
from Europe. 

The settlers reembarked, and sailing on in search of 
a favorable location for their new settlement, they came 
to a cape which they describe as low land, showing 
white like sand. " But yet it is all white rocks, and a 
strong tide goeth in there." This is thought to have 



c 



6 



been Cape Smallpoint, at the western extremity of the 
town of Phippsburg, where the tides are remarkably 
strong. 

Skitwarroes, the Indian chief captured by Weymouth, 
was on board the Mary and John. He here found 
his friends, including Nahanada, who had previously 
found his way home, and was of great service to the 
white men in keeping peace with the Indians, whom at 
this point they found in a terrified and hostile condition 
from their recollection of Weymouth's treachery. 

Wind and weather seem to have had their part in 
determining the location of the first settlement in Maine. 
In attempting to enter the Sagadahoc River the two 
ships encountered a dead calm. They were three miles 
south of Seguin, and were forced to lie there. The calm 
preceded a storm, as dead calms are apt to do, especially 
off Seguin. In the middle of the night a wild tempest 
arose. There was no harbor and no anchorage, and the 
Gift of God and the Mary and Jo Jin were in imminent 
danger of being beaten upon the rocky shore. 

All night the lives of the passengers and the life of 
the new colony were in jeopardy. With the earliest 
ray of dawn, the storm having almost spent itself, they 
sought the nearest point where they could find safety. 
Under the shelter of a small island, supposed to be one 
of the St. Georges, they found a safe harbor. 

The next morning, with weather still unfavorable, the 
Gift of God made her way into the mouth of the Saga- 
dahoc. Before the Mary and John could follow she 
was becalmed ; but by her boats and those of the Gift 
she was towed in as soon as the tide served, and anchored 



57 

also in the "gallant river," as they called the beautiful 
Sagadahoc. 

They rowed far up the river in search of an abiding 
place, and found many "goodly" sites for the new 
settlement, but none that seemed to them more favor- 
able than the one at the mouth of the river. It was at 
the southerly corner of the present town of Phippsburg, 
near what is now called Atkins Bay. 

The Indians called the place Sabino, from the chief 
within whose dominion it lay. It was a beautiful head- 
land of more than a hundred acres. They gave the 
settlement the name of Sagadahoc colony, and laid its 
foundation with religious ceremonies, to the intense 
interest of the Indians, who were always greatl}' at- 
tracted by ceremonials. 

These Indians had Nahanada, the returned captive, 
for their chief, but he evidently did not dispel their 
suspicion of the white men. They could not be hired 
to work, although they worked gladly for the French 
in Canada. Weymouth's treachery had made too deep 
an impression upon them. The colonists built a fort, 
and named it Fort St. George from the Christian name 
of their leader. It was afterwards called Fort Popham. 
It was on the southeastern side of Cape Smallpoint. 

In December the Gift of God and the Mary and John 
returned to England, leaving only forty-five settlers, a 
small, stout-hearted band, to face the winter with but 
scanty supplies, and between a howling wilderness and 
a waste of waters. 

They had built several log huts, and named the town 
St. George. They built also a storehouse for their 



58 



supplies, and a small vessel to cruise along the coast and 
make explorations. This first vessel built in Maine was 

of thirty tons' burden, and 
the name Vii'giiiia was 
given to her by the 
settlers. 

From the first, 
great dissatisfaction 
prevailed in the col- 
ony, and its affairs 
seem to have been 
conducted without 
prudence or discre- 
tion. They discov- 
ered too late that 
the headland, which 
they had supposed 
to be so fertile, was 
a sand bank, barren 
and bleak. They sent 
home the discouraging report 
that the country was " intolerably 
cold and sterile, unhealthy, and not habitable by our 
English nation." 

After their buildings were erected, instead of occupy- 
ing themselves with preparations for the coming winter, 
they were continually making excursions in the Vii'-. 
ginia, seeking a better location for a settlement, al- 
though they could not then avail themselves of this if 
it should be found. They also had continual difticulties 
with the Indians, although, under the influence of Skit- 




59 

warroes, the returned captive, these were disposed to 
be peaceable and friendly. 

Some of the chiefs offered, with great friendliness, 
to go with the white men to the Bashaba, their saga- 
more, who lived somewhere in the region about Pema- 
quid. He was a mighty prince, head over all the 
sachems from Penobscot to Piscataqua, and all strangers 
were expected to pay him court. 

An expedition set out, guided by Skitwarroes, to 
visit this high potentate, whose friendly favor was, of 
course, greatly to be desired ; but, unfortunately, it was 
obliged to turn back by reason of adverse winds and 
stormy weather. 

Shortly afterwards the Bashaba sent his own son to 
Popham, proposing to open a traffic in furs and skins. 
In all this early traffic the Indians are said to have been 
not only businesslike and honorable, but to have shown 
a remarkably generous spirit. An Indian named Ameri- 
guin, — his name has survived the centuries on account 
of one little act that showed a generous spirit, — having 
been given a straw hat and a knife, immediately pre- 
sented the giver with a rich beaver mantle. 

The colonists suffered miserably from cold. They 
had neglected to provide ample stores of wood, as they 
might have done, and had failed to obtain from the 
Indians the necessary supply of furs for clothing and 
bed din"-. 

At length the difficulties with the Indians culminated 
in a fierce quarrel, in which one of the settlers was 
killed, and the rest were driven out of the fort, leaving 
provisions, arms, and several barrels of powder. The 



6o 

Indians opened the barrels of powder, and, having had 
no experience with explosives, carelessly scattered the 
stuff about. Everything in the fort was blown to pieces, 
and several of the Indians were killed. 

Fortunately for the colonists, the savages regarded 
this terrifying disaster as a sign that the Great Spirit 
was angry with them for their treatment of the strangers, 
and they immediately made overtures for peace. 

Another story wdiich reflects very severely upon the 
settlers is told by Williamson, who " hopes it may be 
one of those tales invented or exaggerated by the lively 
imagination of posterity." 

Some Indians who had come to the fort to trade furs 
were shown the firearms, in which they had always a 
keen interest, regarding gunpowder as a device of magic, 
or else an especial gift of the Great Spirit to his white 
children. They were allowed to draw a small mounted 
cannon by its ropes, and when they were all in an ex- 
posed position it was discharged. Some were killed 
and others wounded, while all received a frightful shock. 

When the colonists' storehouse took fire in mid- 
winter, and, with most of their provisions in it, was 
burned to the ground, it was perhaps not unreasonable 
to suppose that the Indians were the incendiaries. 

As soon as the Gift of God and the Mary and Jo Jin 
reached England, another outfit was to have been sent 
to the colonists, and two ships w^eYe made ready. But 
while one ship waited for a favoring wind, the death of 
Lord Popham, the moving spirit of the enterprise, was 
announced, and before the other sailed the news reached 
it that Sir John, the brother of Raleigh Gilbert, was 



6i 

dead. George Popham, the head of the colony, also 
died, — fortunately for him, while there was yet hope 
that the settlement would survive. His last words were : 
" I die content. My name will be always associated 
with the first planting of the English race in the New 
World. My remains will not be neglected, away from 
the home of my fathers and my kindred." 

His expectation was unfulfilled. His colony soon 
came to an end. His grave, on the alien shore, far 
from the home of his fathers, remains unmarked and 
unknown. But his name has not quite faded or been 
forgotten in the province of Maine, where his highest 
hopes were set. 

Raleigh Gilbert succeeded Popham as head of the 
colony ; but his brother's estate, which he had inherited, 
required his attention, and he soon returned to England. 
All these misfortunes, happening at nearly the same 
time, proved the deathblow to the colony. The resent- 
ment of the natives on account of the cannon discharge 
had not been overcome, and one account represents the 
colonists as fleeing for their lives from the savages. 
Another account relates that they " cheerfully de- 
parted," although they carried with them, as the only 
fruits of their exile, toil, and privation, some furs, the 
small vessel that they had built, and some products of 
the new countrv. 

The Plymouth Company was discouraged by the un- 
expected return of these settlers, and made no further 
attempts at colonization for several years ; nevertheless, 
Sir Francis Popham, son of the baronet, sent a ship over 
annually for the fishing and fur trade, and with, pos- 



62 



sibly, some hope of a future colony, until continued 
losses and discouragements induced him to abandon 
the effort. 

After the failure of Popham's colony, Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges had purchased a ship, and secured Richard* Vines 
as captain, with the intention of effecting another settle- 
ment on the Maine coast ; but the new country had 
fallen into such ill repute that he sought in vain for 
colonists, and was obliged to be satisfied with sending 

trading vessels to America, as Sir Fran- 
cis Popham had done. 

About five years after Sir Francis 
Popham had decided to let the New 
World alone. Captain John Smith, of 
whom every one has heard, was moved 
by his zeal to attempt another settle- 
ment at Sagadahoc. 

Smith seems a storybook hero, but 
he was a real personage. An unvar- 
nished tale of his prowess relates that 
when he was making the tour of Europe, 
at the age of seventeen, he killed three Turkish champion 
fighters in single combat, and was honored therefor by 
a triumphal procession. But he received something 
besides honor in Turkey, for we- read that he was for 
many months a prisoner there. All this was long before 
his life was saved in Virginia by the beautiful Indian 
girl Pocahontas. He was now but thirty-five years 
old, yet six years before this time he had been president 
of the colonial council of Virginia. 

He sailed from London, March 3, 16 14, with two 




Captain John Smith. 



63 

vessels, a ship and a bark. His destination was Saga- 
dahoc, in Maine. He was to found a settlement there, 
or at least to hold possession, and " hinder any foreigner 
from settling there, under any pretense whatever." He 
built boats as soon as he reached the mouth of the 
Sagadahoc, and explored the coast. His men spent 
the fishing season in catching whales, which seems to 
have been a Simple Simon sort of enterprise, for when 
they were caught they were " not of the kind which 
yields fins and oil." 

Then the men were led astray by a story about rich 
gold and copper mines which proved to have no more 
gold and copper in them than the whales had fins 
and oil. Nevertheless, their gains were very valuable. 
Captain Smith says: '* We got, for trifles, 11,000 
beavers, 100 martens, and as many otters, and we took 
and cured 40,000 dry fish and 7,000 codfish, corned or 
in pickle." The net value of what they carried home 
with them amounted to ^1,500. 

Captain Smith seems to have had peaceful relations 
with the natives, except in one instance, when there 
was a skirmish, and several Indians were killed. When 
Smith sailed for England, he left at the mouth of the 
Kennebec Thomas Hunt, the master of the other ship. 
This man diso raced himself and the Plv mouth Company 
by stealing twenty-four Indians, whom he carried to 
Malaga and sold as slaves to the Spanish, at i^20 each. 

In 1 6 16 Captain Smith published in London a map 
and a short history of the country which he had ex- 
plored. Prince Charles gave the latter the title of " A 
History of New England." 



64 

In 1615 Captain Smith came ai^ain to America. The 
Plymouth Company liad once more lost interest in the 
New World, and it was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with 
some friends, who privately equipped two ships and 
gave the command to Captain Smith. But England 
and France were at war, and Smith and his companions 
were captured by a French ship and carried prisoners 
to France. 

Not long after this the Plymouth Company aroused 
itself sutlficiently to send another ship to America, under 
command of its president, Sir Richard Hawkins. But 
he found the whole eastern coast the scene of a bloody 
war between the Indian tribes, and was forced to return 
with only a cargo of fish. This war was so widespread 
and destructive as nearly to depopulate New England. 
It was impossible to cultivate the ground. The settlers 
were driven from their burning cabins to the woods, 
where they wandered, without food or shelter. Nearly 
all the warriors on both sides were slain. 

A fearful pestilence followed the war. Whether it 
was smallpox or yellow fever is uncertain, but it is de- 
scribed as a most loathsome disease, and the Indians 
died of it " in heaps." It happened, strangely, that 
Captain Richard Vines, sent by Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
in a trading vessel, passed this winter near Saco ; and 
although the mortality among the savages was frightful, 
yet *' not one of his company," as Gorges quaintly 
records, " ever felt his head to ache so long as they 
staid there." 

Captain Smith, still full of enthusiasm, essayed an- 
other voyage, but was " wind-bound " for three months, 



65 

and finally abandoned the undertaking. He received 
from the Plymouth Company the honor of a commission 
as Admiral of New England. What practical benefits 
it entailed we are not definitely told. 

During another spasmodic revival of the Plymouth 
Company's courage, it received information that Thomas 
Dermer, an Englishman then in Newfoundland, had 
great zeal in making discoveries and forming settlements. 
So the company, through the influence of the indefati- 
gable Sir Ferdinando Gorges, sent out Edward Rocroft 
in a ship to Dermer's assistance. Rocroft failed to find 
Dermer, but he captured a French bark whose crew 
were fishing and trading upon the coast. She was a 
fine ship, and regarding her as a valuable prize, he sent 
the captain and crew to England in his own vessel, and 
kept the French vessel himself, with a part of his men 
to guard the coast through the winter. 

Some of Rocroft's men formed a plot to assassinate 
him and run away with the French prize. The plot 
came to Rocroft's ears just in time to save his life. He 
set the would-be assassins ashore at Saco, and sailed for 
Virginia, where he w^as soon afterwards killed, we are 
not told by whom. 

Dermer had missed Rocroft, but he had the help of 
Squanto, one of Hunt's captives, whose heart he had 
won by great kindness. Samoset, a captive from Saga- 
dahoc, sent home by Captain Mason, governor of New- 
foundland, was also with Dermer, and was his faithful 
friend and ally. These two Indians were of great assist- 
ance in helping the Englishmen to keep peace with the 
hostile tribes. 

STO. OF MAINE — 5 



66 

Dermer, like Rocroft, went to Virginia, and also met 
his death there, being killed by Epenow, the famous 
captive, who had been sent home from England. The 
death of Dermer, a thoroughly honorable as w^ell as a 
discreet and politic man, discouraged Gorges. He de- 
clared that " it made him almost resolve never to inter- 
meddle again in any of those undertakings." 

In the meantime, in the year 1620, — one of the few 
dates we never forget, — the Pilgrims from England had 
landed upon Plymouth Rock and established their per- 
manent and world-famous colony. 

In that same year the Plymouth Company secured a 
new patent, and the son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 
himself a brilliant officer in the English army, estab- 
lished a permanent settlement at Saco, and was com- 
missioned lieutenant general and governor in chief of 
New England. But before long the English govern- 
ment became convinced that the Plymouth Company, 
and especially the new governor in chief, were moved 
altogether by motives of self-interest and private gain, 
and threatened the withdrawal of the patent. Gorges 
thereupon planted a small colony at his own expense, 
securing a grant of twenty-four thousand acres on each 
side of York River. 

There were disturbing controversies with France ; but 
in spite of these, and of continual Indian outbreaks, the 
Plymouth Company continued to grant patents. At 
Sheepscot, at Pemaquid, and at Damariscotta small 
settlements were made, and in 1630 eighty -four families, 
besides the wandering fishermen, were living along the 
shores of this region. 



67 







New Plymouth, a flourishing colony at this time, 
opened a trade in an article called wampum. One 
authority says that it was originally made of white and 
blue beads, as long and large as a wheat corn, 
blunt at the ends, perforated, and strung. The 
beads possessed a clearness and beauty which 
rendered them desirable ornaments. Other 
authorities say that wampum was made of the 
inner wreath of the cockle or periwinkle, some 
shells being white, others blue veined with pur- 
ple. The white beads were used by the Indi- 
ans for stanching the blood from a wound. 

The commercial value of wampum varied 
like that of gold and silver, being determined 
by both quality and workmanship. Belts were 
made of it, and highly ornamented, and it be- 
came not only the money of the tribes that pos- 
sessed it, but also the expression of their artistic 
talent ; and the beautiful belts were used as 
pledges of good faith and tributes of friendship. The 
colonists, having little gold and silver, came to regard 
wampum as " legal tender." But it seems to have been 
known only to the Narragansetts, the Pequots, and the 
natives on Long Island. 

The Plymouth Company held its last meeting April 
25, 1635, when only sixteen members were present. 
The cause of its dissolution was tluis recorded: "We 
have been bereaved of friends ; oppressed with losses, 
expenses, and troubles ; assailed before the pri\y council 
again and again with groundless charges ; and weakened 
by the French and other foes without and within the 




A Belt of 
Wampum. 



68 

realm. What remains is only a breathless carcass. 
We therefore now resign the patent to the king, first 
reserving all grants by us made and all vested rights, a 
patent we have holden about fifteen years." The king, 
expecting this dissolution of the company, had already 
appointed eleven of his privy councilors lords commis- 
sioners of all his American plantations, and committed 
to them the direction of colonial affairs. This commis- 
sion procured for Sir Ferdinando Gorges the position of 
governor general over the whole of New England. 

Sir Ferdinando was then sixty years old, but his zeal 
for the English settlement of the New World had not 
abated. A man-of-war was built to bring him to this 
country, and was to remain here for defense; but in 
launching she turned over upon her side, and her ribs 
were broken beyond repair. Strange to say, although 
it might be supposed that England could afford another 
war ship, the enterprise thereby failed, and Sir Ferdi- 
nando never saw America. Nevertheless, on the 3d of 
April, 1639, with interest in the New World still un- 
abated and hope undimmed, he received a charter of 
the province of Maine. 

He congratulates himself in this wise : " Being seized 
of what I have travailed for, above forty years, together 
with the expenses of many thousand pounds, and the 
best time of my age loaded with troubles and vexations 
from all parts, as you have heard, I will give you some 
account in what order I have settled mv affairs in the 
province of Maine, with the true form and manner of 
government according to the authority granted me by 
his Majesty's royal charter." 



r 



69 

There are two reasons given for the naming of the 
province. One is that on account of the great number 
of islands the shores were constantly called the " main." 
Captain John Smith says the Indians called the land 
there the " Mayne." The other and more probable 
reason for the name is that it was given in honor of 
Queen Henrietta Maria, married not long before to 
King Charles. She was a French princess, and had 
inherited the province of Maine in her own country. 



VII. THE STORY OF LA TOUR 
AND D'AULNEY. 

RAZILLA, the governor of Acadia, died in 1635, 
and two of his subordinate officers were deter- 
mined to succeed him in command. One of these am- 
bitious officers was Charles de la Tour, son of Claude 
de la Tour, the former commandant of Port Royal. 
He stationed himself at the mouth of the St. John 
River. D'Aulney de Charmay, the other, took up his 
residence at 'Biguyduce, the peninsula now called Cas- 
tine. This was on the eastern side of the Penobscot, 
and a hundred and fifty miles west from La Tour. 
The valleys of both the St. John and the Penobscot 
were inhabited by two powerful tribes of Indians. 

D'Aulney was a Roman Catholic, as were most of the 
first French settlers, and had behind him the influence 
of the Jesuits, already a power in the land. La Tour 
was a Protestant, and had allied himself with the New 
England Puritans, It is to be feared that there was, 
in both men, less of religious faith and zeal than of a 
desire to inflame the religious prejudices of others to 
serve their own ends. 

The King of France was fighting Spain, and troubled 
himself very little about his American colonies, sepa- 
rated from him by three thousand miles of water. If 

70 



71 

the quarrel should come to his ears the Protestant La 
Tour had no chance of the royal favor in a conflict 
with his Roman Catholic rival. 

So, instead of appealing to the crown, La Tour sent, 
from his colony on the St. John, an agent, M. Rochet, 
to propose to Massachusetts a cooperation in the effort 
to drive D'Aulney from his 'Biguyduce settlement, and, 
if possible, altogether off the Penobscot. He proposed 
free trade between the colonies as a pleasing addition to 
his plan. 

The free-trade idea was at once carried into effect, 
but Massachusetts declined to form an immediate alli- 
ance with La Tour for the dispossession of his rival. 

Meanwhile the Jesuits set to work and obtained a 
-royal edict denouncing La Tour as a rebel and an out- 
law; and immediately D'Aulney fitted out an expedi- 
tion of four vessels, with five hundred men, and sailed 
for his rival's settlement on the St. John. He com- 
pletely blockaded the harbor, and cut off all supplies 
and communications from La Tour. The besieged gar- 
rison was reduced to distress and despair. La Tour 
and his wife escaped in the night. They ran the block- 
ade in a small vessel, and succeeded in getting safely to 
Boston, where La Tour tried all his powers of persua- 
sion to induce the governor of the colony to give him 
the aid of a military force. 

The Massachusetts colony was greatly disturbed by 
this demand, and divided in sentiment. La Tour had 
an unquestionably genuine commission from the French 
cabinet appointing him the king's lieutenant general 
in Acadia, and there were those who urged that he was 



72 



the lawful ruler, and that their interests and their prin- 
ciples, especially their religious principles, demanded 

that they should sustain him. 
On the other hand, it was 
argued that the French 
cabinet had appar- 
ently revoked its de- 
cision ; that the exact 
"^ state of the case was 
not clear to them; 
that La Tour's Protes- 
tantism was not of the 
Puritan sort, and was 
apparently no religion 
at all, except in the mat- 
ter of expediency ; and, 
finally, that it was not seemly that a 
French adventurer should lead staid and Puri- 
tan Massachusetts into a war. 

The province of Maine was even more deeply agitated 
by the quarrel between the rival officers. Thomas 
Gorges, son or nephew of Sir Ferdinando, and deputy 
governor of the province, wrote the following letter, 
from his residence at Kittery Point, to Governor Win- 
throp of Massachusetts : 

" Right Worthy Sir : I understand by Mr. Parker 
you have written me by Mr. Shurt, which as yet I have 
not received. It cannot be unknown to you what fears 
we are in, since La Tour's promise of aid from a'ou. 
For my part, I thought ht to certify so much unto you ; 




73 

for I suppose that not only these parts, which are naked, 
but all northeast, will find D'Aulney a scourge. He 
hath long- waited, with the expense of near ;{^8oo per 
month, for an opportunity of taking supplies from his 
foe ; and should all his hopes be frustrated through 
your aid, you may conceive where he will seek for 
satisfaction. 

" If a thorough work could be made, and he be utterly 
extirpated, I should like it well ; otherwise it cannot be 
thought but that a soldier and a gentleman will seek to 
revenge himself, having five hundred men, two ships, a 
galley, and pinnaces well provided. But you may please 
conceive in what manner he now besieges La Tour. 
His ships lie on the southwest part of the island, at the 
entrance of the St. John River, within w^hich is only an 
entrance for ships. On the northeast lie his pinnaces. 
It cannot be conceived but he will fortifv the island, 
which will debar the entrance of any of your ships and 
force them back, showing the will, not having the power, 
to hurt him. I suppose I shall sail for England in this 
ship; I am not yet certain, which makes me forbear to 
enlarge at this time or to de-sire yoiir commands thither. 
Thus, in haste, I rest, 

" Your honoring friend and servant, 

"Thomas Gorges." 

The Massachusetts authorities did not yet see their 
duty clear to help to extirpate D'Aulney, and they 
finally declared that, although they could not be counted 
upon as active allies, yet La Tour might buy or charter 
vessels, and enlist as many Massachusetts volunteers as 



74 

he could find, of course at his own expense. La Tour 
at once mortgaged his fort at St. John, with all its 
stores and ammunition, and also all his real and per- 
sonal estate in Acadia, to raise the necessary money 
for his warfare against D'Aulney. 

He chartered four vessels for two months, paying for 
them twenty-six hundred dollars. He secured one 
hundred and forty-two volunteers and thirty-eight 
pieces of ordnance. Plenty of ammunition and provi- 
sions were also stored upon the vessels, and they were 
in charge of well-trained seamen. Nothing seemed 
lacking for a vigorous onslaught upon the foe. 

The four vessels which he had chartered were named 
the PJiilip and Mary , the Grcyhojnid, the Seabridge^ and 
the Increase. His own vessel, the Clement, in which he 
had escaped from the enemy, increased his fleet to fi\ e 
vessels. La Tour knew his enemy, and had provided 
himself with an adequate force against him, and his 
furious onslaught was entirely successful. He chased 
D'Aulney's vessels into the Penobscot, and two of them 
were driven aground. A lively conflict ensued, and 
several Frenchmen on both sides were either killed or 
wounded ; but the Massachusetts volunteers all escaped 
unharmed. Within the time for which they were char- 
tered the vessels returned to Boston, La Tour trium- 
phant with a ship of D'Aulney's which he had captured 
with a freight of valuable furs. 

But the end of this trouble for the province of Maine, 
and in fact for Massachusetts, was not yet. D'Aulney, 
enraged against Massachusetts on account of the aid it 
had rendered to La Tour, applied to the court of France 



75 

for vengeance upon the colony, which he reported was 
fitting out an expedition to destroy all the French colo- 
nies in Acadia. His application w^as unsuccessful, but 
he openly declared his resolve to stop all intercourse 
or alliance between Massachusetts and La Tour. From 
the vantage ground of his 'Biguyduce peninsula, be- 
tween Massachusetts and La Tour's St. John settlement, 
he could easily discover and attack any passing vessels 
belonging to either. 

His animosity extended to all Englishmen ; for when 
three colonists, men of importance in their several colo- 
nies, set out to visit La Tour's settlement, he caused 
their arrest and imprisonment as soon as they reached 
the Penobscot. The three men were Shurt of Pema- 
quid, Vines of Saco, and Wannerton of New Hamp- 
shire, neither of them having any connection whatever 
with Massachusetts. They were imprisoned for several 
days, and had great difficulty in obtaining their release. 
They had business with La Tour, and being at length 
released, they continued on their way to the St. John. 
They learned from La Tour that the 'Biguyduce gar- 
rison was but feeble, and Wannerton, a passionate, im- 
pulsive man, who had been throw-n into a fierce rage 
by his seizure and imprisonment, secured a company ot 
twenty well-armed men to go with him to 'Biguyduce 
for vengeance upon D'Aulney. 

Five miles away from his fort, D'Aulney had a flour- 
ishing, well-stocked farm. The party landed near the 
farm, and marched to the buildings, which were near the 
shore. The farm laborers sought shelter in the house 
when they saw the armed men, and when Wannerton, 



76 



leading his men, knocked at the door, it was opened, 
and they were greeted with a storm of bullets from 
within. 

Wannerton received a wound which proved mortal; 
one man was shot dead, and still another was severely 

wounded. Having 

made this brave but 

desperate resistance, the 

laborers gave up their 

arms and surrendered to 

superior force. 

The avengers 
scorned to take any 
booty, but they 
ruthlessly burned 
and destroyed every- 
thing' that was of value. All 
the buildings, farming tools, 
and stores were reduced to 
ashes ; the animals were killed. A 
scene of utter desolation was left 
behind them. 

D'Aulney, utterly incensed, 
vowed vengeance upon all 
Englishmen. Although Wan- 
nerton had paid with his life 
for the revenge which he had 
undertaken, in his private ca- 
pacity, for the affront which had been offered to him- 
self, yet D'Aulney announced that every Englishman 
who ventured east oi the Penobscot should be held 




11 

accountable for the outrage committed upon his prop- 
erty ; every EngUsh colonial vessel he would seize. 

The governor of Massachusetts sent him a letter of 
mild but firm remonstrance. " A merchant's trade is 
permitted between us and St. John," wrote the gov- 
ernor, *' and rest assured it will be protected." 

D'Aulney also found himself in disgrace with his own 
government, which was not disposed to go to war with 
England on account of small issues in the distant wilder- 
ness. He was rebuked by the Erench cabinet, and 
warned to maintain thenceforth friendly relations with 
all the English. But when it came to a question of 
D'Aulney's relations with La Tour, the French govern- 
ment immediately sustained the Roman Catholic. The 
Protestant La Tour and his wife were denounced as 
traitors, and orders were given for their arrest. 

Mme. La Tour was then in Boston, the master of the 
ship which brought her from Erance having landed her 
there, instead of carrying her to St. John. D'Aulney 
sent an envoy, M. Marie, with a retinue of attendants, to 
make a treaty with the governor of Massachusetts, who 
was expected to deliver up Mme. La Tour. But Gov- 
ernor Winthrop tried to reconcile the two Erench parties, 
and to secure the safe return of Mme. La Tour to her 
husband. 

M. Marie's angry reply is recorded by the governor: 
" No! nothing but submission will save La Tour's head, 
if he be taken ; nor will his wife have any passport to 
St. John. She is known to be the cause of his contempt 
and rebellion. Any vessel which shall admit her as a 
passenger will be liable to arrest." 



78 

The treaty was made a merely commercial one, the 
governor feeling it wise to remain neutral, although the 
sympathy of the Massachusetts colony was with La 
Tour. By the treaty D'Aulney agreed to abstain from 
all hostile acts, and the province of Maine was relieved 
and rejoicing. It had felt itself almost defenseless 
before this ruthless and reckless pirate of the high seas 
and of the coasts. Mme. La Tour, in the meantime, 
showed herself a clever woman by prosecuting for 
damages the captain who had left her where she could 
not reach her home except with a sufficient force to 
enable her to bid defiance to the ever-watchful enemy. 
After a four days' trial the court granted a verdict in 
her favor, with damages fixed at ten thousand dollars. 
She chartered three London ships with this money, 
and proceeded safely and triumphantly to St. John. 

D'Aulney, furious, because he had fully expected to 
make her his captive, declared that the Massachusetts 
colony had violated the treaty in allowing Mme. La 
Tour to charter the ships. He learned that La Tour 
had gone on a cruise to the Bay of Fundy, that but 
fifty men were left in the garrison, and the supply of 
food and ammunition was but scanty. 

With a well-equipped war vessel, he set sail, in the 
spring, to capture the works at the St. John. He over- 
took a New England vessel on the way, which was 
carrying supplies to La Tour's garrison. Commercial 
treaties were evidently held in but slight regard by the 
desperate D'Aulney. He seized the vessel, landed the 
crew on an uninhabited island, and abandoned them. 
There was still snow on the ground, and they had no 



79 

means of making- a fire. They built a rude shanty, but 
ahnost perished from cold and hunger in the ten days 
that elapsed before they were taken off. 

Mme. La Tour was not only a clever and resourceful 
woman : she was a determined heroine as well. The 
garrison upon which D'Aulney opened a furious fire 
was a feeble one, but she strengthened it by her unflinch- 
ing bravery. She directed the firing, and with a skill 
that caused every shot from the fort to strike the ship. 
"The deck of D'Aulney's vessel ran red with blood," 
says the ancient record, " and was strewn with the 
mangled bodies of the dead and dying." The vessel's 
strong ribs were broken. The water was rushing in 
through the shotholes. The deadly rain of bullets still 
fell upon it, while the intrepid garrison stood behind its 
ramparts, almost unharmed. 

Under the shelter of a convenient bluff D'Aulney 
protected his vessel from the furious firing, while he 
buried the dead, dressed the wounds made by the 
cannon shot, and repaired the damages to his vessel as 
best he might ; and as soon as possible he made his 
way back to 'Biguyduce, utterly beaten and crest- 
fallen. 

Massachusetts demanded an explanation and satis- 
faction for the breaking of the treaty in the seizing of 
a New England vessel. 

The Frenchman, whose temper w^as, naturally, not 
improved by his recent experiences, became utterly 
reckless and defiant. " You have helped my mortal 
enemy in aiding La Tour's wife to return to St. John. 
You have burned my buildings, you have killed my 



So 

animals. I warn you to beware of the avenging hand 
of my sovereign," he said. 

The Puritan envoy who had been sent to him must 
have enraged him still more with his mild dignity. 
" Your sovereign is a mighty prince," he answered ; " he 
is also a prince of too much honor to commence an 
unjustifiable attack; but should he assail us, we trust in 
God, who is the infinite arbiter of justice." 

Nothing was accomplished by the conference, except 
a truce for a few months. There were occasional efforts, 
by correspondence, during the ensuing year, to make 
a diplomatic settlement of the affair; but the colony 
became convinced that it could not keep peace and 
carry on free trade with both these French generals, 
who were such implacable enemies to each other. 

D'Aulney sent three commissioners to the governor 
of Massachusetts, in September of the next year, to 
demand damages for losses which he had incurred 
through the English. The amount was set at four 
thousand dollars. The government brought counter- 
charges, and accounted its damages to be considerabl}' 
more than four thousand dollars. 

Meanwhile D'Aulney, with the Jesuit priests as spies, 
was keeping a watchful eye upon La Tour's fortress at 
St. John. The bitter resentment of his repulse when 
Mme. La Tour had held the fort had only increased with 
time, and he had never ceased to plan a revenge. Dis- 
covering that La Tour had again gone on a voyage to 
obtain provisions, he set out, this time with an ade- 
quate force of well-equipped vessels and a large com- 
pan}^ of armed men. 



8i 



^i.^rr^ 



He not only assailed tlie fort by a terrific cannonade 
from his ships, bnt made a fierce onslaught upon il on 
the land side. He lost 
twelve men, and had 
many wounded, 
for the fort made 
a gallant defense, 
as before ; but, in 
the end, its w^alls 
were scaled, and 
it was forced to 
surrender. 

The savage 
D'Aulney had 
no mercy upon 
the helpless in- 
mates. They 
were all slaugh- 
tered, except 
Mme. La Tour, 
who was taken 
prisoner. More than 
fifty thousand dollars' 
worth of bcjoty fell into the hands of 
D'Aulney. Besides implements of war, there were val- 
uable household goods, including plate and jewels and 
many objects highly prized by their fair owner. 

Mme. La Tour, although so brave and high-spirited, 
was unable to survive this last cruel stroke of fortune. 
She had lost all her worldly possessions, and her new 
home, to which she is said to have been driven from 

STO. OF MAINE — 6 




^2 

France by religious persecution, was in ruins. Her hus- 
band was an outlaw, who might never hope to regain 
position or fortune, and she was helpless in the hands 
of her bitterest enemy. She died within three weeks 
from the day when the fort was taken, *' glad to be rid 
of so weary a world." 

The Massachusetts colony had always felt, as has been 
said before, a sympathy with La Tour. When he ap- 
peared in Boston with this latest trouble heavy upon 
him, utterly impoverished, and besieged by creditors, 
who through his misfortunes had lost heavily, the mer- 
chants, even some who had lost by him, took pity on 
him, and provided him with a vessel and goods to the 
value of several thousand dollars, that he might set up 
a coasting trade with the natives. The crew was a mix- 
ture of French and English seamen. 

It is sad to record the base ingratitude and treachery 
of La Tour, who seems to have been destitute of any 
redeeming virtue and to have quite justified the suspi- 
cion of the shrewd old Puritans of Massachusetts that his 
boasted Protestantism was only the absence of all religion. 

Off Cape Sable, in Nova Scotia, he formed a conspir- 
acy with the French sailors, his own countrymen, seized 
tlie vessel and cargo, and drove the English sailors 
ashore. One of the Englishmen, who resisted, he shot 
in the face with his own pistol. 

It was midwinter and intensely cold, and the Eng- 
lishmen, abandoned upon the uninhabited ice-bound 
coast, endured terrible sufferings for more than two 
weeks, and would have perished but for a providential 
meeting with some Micmac Indians, who took them to 



83 

their wigwams, warmed and fed them, and clothed them, 
too, as well as they could. An ancient historian says : 
'' If they had not by special providence found more 
favor at the hands of Cape Sable Indians than of those 
French Christians, they might all have perished ; for, 
having wandered fifteen days up and down, they at the 
last found some Indians, who gave them a shallop with 
victuals, and an Indian pilot ; by which means they 
came safe to Boston three months afterw^ards." 

La Tour had gone with his stolen vessel, no one 
knew where. 

D'Aulney was the ruler of Acadia. His supremacy 
was unquestioned, and his fortress at 'Biguyduce was 
the resort of all the Roman Catholic priests sent over 
by France to convert the natives and help in taking and 
retaining possession of the country. His religious zeal 
gave him great influence with the French cabinet, and 
strengthened his position as a colonist. But in 1650 
he died, and a year after his death the wandering La 
Tour returned. 

How he was received by the Massachusetts merchants, 
whose generosity he had abused, there are no records 
to show. But what we are told did occur when the 
bold adventurer returned reads more like a wildly im- 
probable romance than the sober facts of history. He 
married the widow of D'Aulnev, his bitter foe ; he sue- 
ceeded to all D'Aulney's possessions; he renounced his 
Protestantism, and secured the favor and influence of 
court and church; he gave up his wanderings, and re- 
building the fortress at St. John, he hved there in lux- 
ury and conviviality. 



84 

Here several children were born to him, but only one, 
Stephen de la Tour, survived him, and inherited his 
large but debt-burdened estates. From his St. John 
fortress La Tour ruled the Penobscot region with mili- 
tary despotism, permitting no civil tribunals to be estab- 
lished. 

It was suspected, however, that his ambition was not 
satisfied. With the aid of the Roman Catholic mission- 
aries, who were always able to influence the Indians to 
a wonderful degree, he had acquired a great ascendency 
over the native tribes of the region. He was believed 
to have formed a plan to combine the Indians of Maine, 
Nova Scotia, and Canada, and make a seizure of all the 
English settlements, constituting the French possessors 
of the wdiole country, and himself the lord of all the land. 

Massachusetts, taking alarm, issued an order, through 
its General Court, prohibiting commercial intercourse 
with the French on the east, and also with the Dutch 
on the west. The penalty of disregarding this prohibi- 
tion was to be the loss of both vessel and cargo. La 
Tour's devotion to self-interest, and utter indifl'erence 
as to which European country was his master, so long 
as his possessions wxre left to him, are curiously shown 
in what followed. 

The order of the Massachusetts court thrcAv him and 
his colonies into great privation and want. They were 
not a thrifty people, nor given to husbandry. Instead 
of cultivating the land, as they might have done, the 
Indians lived on fish, especially shellfish, and such 
edible roots as thev could find. Some of the more 
industrious sowed a scanty crop of corn. 






With the furs of the Indians, for wliich the French 
paid with beads and baubles, plent\- of food had been 
obtained from the better-cukivated parts of New Eng- 
land. With commercial relations forbidden, they seemed 
doomed to starvation. 

This was thought to be a harsh measure, since there 
was no proof of La Tour's ambitious schemes, and it 
was feared that it would arouse the always dreaded 
ferocity of the Indians. Either with or without the 
consent of the authorities, a vessel loaded with provi- 
sions was sent to the St. John settlement. But an ex- 
pedition of a different character was b}^ this time getting 
under way for the St. John. 

Oliver Cromwell had sent a fleet to Boston, with 
orders to raise there a volunteer force and take posses- 
sion of the Dutch colony on the Hudson; for the Dutch 
were then taking America in a way that England did 
not like. The plan was to conquer Nova Scotia, after 
the Dutch had been subdued. But the news came that 
peace had been declared between England and Holland, 
and the fleet proceeded to the fortress at 'Biguyduce, 
and afterwards to the stronger one at the St. John. 

Perhaps resistance would not have availed, tlie force 
being very strong. At all events, none was offered at 
either place, and La Tour quite cheerfully accepted an 
Enplish sovereign instead of a French one. 

The English took possession of the whole province, 
and held it for thirteen years, or until the treaty of 
Breda restored it to the French. La Tour lived but a 
short time after the English came into power. He 
died at his settlement on the St. John, and Cromwell 



86 

confirmed the rights of his son Stephen in his father's 
possessions there. 

La Tour's was a singular character, with its lack of 
moral sense and of any convictions that interfered with 
his success in life. He was of fine personal appearance, 
and had a frank and attractive manner that won him 
many friends. Fortune had played him many tricks, 
making him rich one day and poor the next, now high 
in the king's favor and again a hunted outlaw; but he 
is said to have carried, through all his mischances, a 
''goodly outside" and as careless an air as if he had 
been the king's jester. 

The old times of colonial struggle and savage warfare 
have vanished like a dream, and their records read like 
a romance ; but the summer visitor to Castine is shown 
relics and landmarks that easily transform to his imagi- 
nation the pleasant, drowsy town to the old, much- 
fought-for 'Biguyduce ; and at the mouth of the St. John 
the site is still pointed out of the fortress which brave 
Mme. La Tour, alone and heartsick with exile, so nobly 
held, and lost at last. 



VIIT. KING PHILIP'S WAR. 

THE Indians had obtained from the Frencli traders 
a supply of firearms and ammunition, and had 
learned with surprising readiness to use them. It is 
thought that the possession of these arms excited and 
emboldened them to the acts of hostility which cul- 
minated, June 24, 1675, in the breaking out of the 
great King Philip's War, a war in which Indian revenge 
and rapacity were both fearfully displayed. The war 
started in Plymouth, and within twenty days " the fire 
began to kindle in these easterly parts, though distant 
two hundred and fifty miles." 

There were then nearly seven thousand English 
settlers in Maine, and between two and three times as 
many Indians. It is easy to see how great were the 
peril and distress of the pioneers when the long-smolder- 
ing hatred and revenge of the savages at last broke out. 

Squando, sagamore of the Sokokis, was a seer and a 

magician in the eyes of the Indians. He had counseled 

a peaceful policy toward the white men, although he 

declared that God himself had told him that the English 

people must be destroyed by the Indians. He had a 

prudent mind, for an Indian, and if it had not been 

for a great wrong which he suffered just as the news 

came of the Plymouth hostilities, he might have cast 

87 



88 




his influence for peace instead of war. Sqnando's 
squaw was paddling along the Saco in a canoe, with 
her baby, when some rough sailors in a boat, think- 
ing it would be fine fun to discover whether papooses 
could swim like ducks, as the tradition ran, upset the 
canoe. The papoose sunk. The squaw dived, and 
brought it up alive, but it died within a few days, doubt- 
less from the shock Then Squando, who had unlimited 
power over his own tribe, and great influence over many 
others, used it all to arouse the Indians to fiercest 
warfare. 

Wonolancet, Passaconaway's son, followed his 
father's counsel and took no part in the war. He was 
now chief of the Penacooks, a fierce and warlike tribe. 
He would not take sides with the enemy of his people, 
but " withdrew into the heart of the distant desert," — 
supposed to be the forest near Mount Agaixienticus, 



89 

And so great was his influence over the stormy spirits 
of his tribe that most of them followed him. 

The Indians were especially bitter against the English 
colonists, because they refused to sell them arms and 
ammunition, which they had now come to depend upon 
in the hunting that was their chief means of subsist- 
ence, while the French, they said, were " free and 
cheerful " to supply them with whatever they needed. 
They believed, too, that the Great Spirit had given 
them for their own the country of their birth, and that 
they had absolute right in it; and they cherished and 
rehearsed, with a true Indian spirit of revenge, the old 
stories of kidnaping and cheating and general treachery 
on the part of the English. A committee of war was 
appointed by the General Court, intrusted with military 
power over the eastern parts, and with directions to 
furnish themselves with all necessary munitions of war 
for the common defense, and to sell neither gun, knife, 
powder, nor lead to any other Indians than those whose 
friendship was fully known. It was proposed to take 
from the Indians, as far as possible, their arms and 
ammunition. 

Some of the Canibas and Anasagunticook tribes 
peaceably gave up their weapons; but one Canibas 
Indian, named Sowen, turned with sudden fury upon 
Hosea Mallet, one of the party that received the arms, 
and would have killed him if he had not been seized 
and bound. The Indians confessed that Sowen deserved 
death, yet pleaded for his release. They offered forty 
fine beaver skins as a ransom, and hostages for his future 
good behavior. 



90 




Sowen was released, the Indians were feasted and 
given a pler.tiful supply of tobacco, always their hearts' 
desire, and Robinhood, sagamore of the Can- 
ibas, gave a great dance, the next 
day, celebrating the peace 
with a wild carousal. 

Squando, who took the 
warpath on account of the 
death of his papoose, ap- 
pears now in a more hon- 
orable light, being the 
rescuer of Elizabeth 
Wakeley, a girl of 
eleven years, who 
had been carried 
into captivity by the 
Indians. The savages had 
previously killed with shocking cruelty all the rest of 
her family, except two little children, who were car- 
ried off in another direction. 

The Indians, having now tasted blood, seemed like 
wild beasts in their fury. They robbed and murdered 
in every defenseless settlement, and no one's life or 
possessions were safe. 

The dwelling houses of John Bonython and Major 
William Phillips were on opposite banks of the river, 
and both had been fairly well fortified. A friendly 
Sokokis native came to Bonython's house, and told him 
that a strange Indian, from the westward, with a party 
of Anasagunticooks, had been at his wigwam, persuad- 
ing all his tribe to raise the tomahawk against the white 



91 

people ; that they had gone to the east, and would soon 
come back with many more Indians. 

Bonython, much alarmed, spread the news, and then 
took shelter, with the other settlers and their families, 
in Major Phillips's house, which was better garrisoned 
than any other. Next day they saw Bonython's house 
in flames, and a sentinel caught sight of an Indian lurking 
under the fence. 

Phillips, at his window, was wounded by an Indian's 
gun, and those who lay in ambush near the house 
thought him killed, and with savage shouts exposed 
themselves to sight. The settlers fired upon them from 
the house and from outposts in all directions. Several 
Indians were wounded, including the leader, who died 
while they were on the retreat. 

The assailants were finally convinced that the place 
could be taken only by stratagem. To draw the men 
out of the fortification, they set fire to a small house, 
and afterwards to the mill, calling to the settlers : " Come, 
now, you English coward dogs! Come put out the fire, 
if you dare!" This move proving unsuccessful, they 
resumed their firing, and continued it until the moon 
set, about four in the morning. Then the savages, 
taking a cart, hastily constructed a battery upon the 
axletree and forks of the spear, forward of the wheels, 
to shelter them from the musketry of the fort, and filled 
the body of the cart with birch rinds, straw, and matches. 

This engine they ran backward, within pistol shot ot 
the garrison house, intending to communicate to it, by 
means of long poles, the flaming combustibles. But in 
passing a small gutter one wheel stuck fast in the mud, 



92 

which gave a sudden turn to tlie cart, exposing the 
whole party to a fatal fire from the right flanker, — an 
opportunity which the settlers quickly improved. Six 
Indians fell dead. Fifteen, in all, were wounded in the 
assault ; and the survivors, about sixty in number, tired 
of the attack, and mortified at the repulse, withdrew. 
During the siege there were fifty persons in the house, 
of whom only ten were effective men ; five others could 
only partially assist; and one or two, besides Major 
Phillips, were wounded. 

No aid could be spared to Major Phillips, and he was 
forced to leave his house, which the infuriated Indians 
burned to the ground. 

They burned all the houses above Winter Harbor, and 
shot down in cold blood all the white travelers whom 
they encountered. They carried into captivity from 
Winter Harbor a Mrs. Hitchcock, and the next spring, 
when a ransom was offered for her return, they reported 
that she had died, in the winter, from eating poisonous 
roots which she had mistaken for groundnuts. 

Instances of heroism that thrill the blood are not rare 
in the records of those dreadful days, when even old 
men and feeble women, holding their lives in their 
hands, sold them dearly in defense of their lo\'ed ones. 

The story is told of a young heroine at Newichawan- 
nock (South Berwick), whose name, unfortunately, has 
been forgotten. The house of Jolm Tozier was in an 
isolated region, and Tozier himself, and the few other 
men of the neighborhood, had gone to the relief of the 
people of Saco, who were surrounded by Indians. The 
fifteen persons left wholly unprotected inTozier's house 



93 



were all women and children. An attack was made 
upon the house, led by two of the fiercest warriors of 
their tribes, one of whom was Andrew, a Sokokis brave, 
and subject of the great Squando, in whose character 
cruelty and kindness seem to have been incomprehen- 
sibly combined. 

It was a young girl of eighteen who discovered the 
approach of the dreaded Indians, and she shut the door 
and held it fast, parleying witli 
them to gain time and 
allow the rest of the 
household to escape. 
When finally the Indi- 
ans cut the door down 
with their hatchets, 
they found that all but 
her had p-one. 

The exasperated 
savages fell upon her 
with their hatchets, 
and left her for dead. 
They then pursued the 
freeing family, and 
overtook two of the 
children. A little three- 
year-old, who was too young to 

travel, and likely to be an incumbrance, they killed, and 
the older child they carried into captivity. It is pleas- 
ant to be able to add to this tale of horror that the 
brave girl revived after her fiendish assailants had gone, 
crawled to the garrison for relief, was healed of her 







■--■ ■C-gr "'vM''gl ' ' 






94 

wounds, and lived to tell, in peaceful days, the story 
to her children. 

The Indians went on burning and pillaging and 
slaughtering, until a temporary lull in hostilities was 
effected by the chief magistrate of the Pemaquid plan- 
tation, Abraham Shurt, whose fame has come down 
to us as a man of peace and of unusual good sense. He 
succeeded in inducing the warlike sagamores to meet 
him at Pemaquid for a parley. The result was a truce, 
by which they engaged to live in peace with the Eng- 
lish, and to prevent, if possible, the Anasagunticooks 
from committing any more depredations. Much faith 
was felt in these pacific measures, and the General Court 
ordered that quite a large sum should be taken from the 
public treasury for the relief of those friendly Indians 
whose wigwams had been burned and whose harvests 
had been trampled down. 

But this truce was narrow in its province, and had 
but shght effect. In other parts of the colony a different 
policy prevailed. The Indians, having set out upon the 
warpath, were not easily turned back, and many of the 
English believed in a policy of extermination rather 
than of peace. 

The town of Berwick seems to have been chosen by 
the Indians for their fiercest onslaughts, in spite of the 
fact that one of the strongest of the garrison houses was 
located there. In October, 1675, a party of a hundred 
Indians, partly of the Sokokis tribe (always known as 
the fiercest) and partly of the Canibas, attacked Richard 
Tozier's house, burned it to the ground, killed Tozier, 
and carried his son away captive. This was in sight of 



95 

the garrison house. Lieutenant Roger Plaisted, in com- 
mand of the garrison, sent a hltle company of nine 
picked men to watch the enemy's movements. - 

The men were unwary, and walked into an Indian 
ambuscade. The instinct of war born in the Indians 
seems to have been entirely lacking to the English 
settlers. For a hundred years the English officers went 
on leading their men into the snares that the wily sav- 
ages set for them, and it is said that even the squaws 
made merry over their stupidity. Plaisted knew that a 
hundred cunning savages were lurking about, and yet 
he led his men boldly into the midst of them. Three 
of the nine were killed at once ; the others succeeded 
in making their escape. The next day Plaisted sent a 
team with twenty armed men to bring in the bodies of 
the slain. They had a cart drawn by oxen, and Plaisted 
himself led the little company. They had placed one 
dead body in the cart, when, from the bushes behind a 
stone wall, a hundred and fifty Indians poured upon 
them a deadly fire. Only a few of the men escaped. 
Lieutenant Plaisted fought bravely until cut down by a 
tomahawk. Two of his sons were among the killed. 

In view of the Berwick highway may still be seen a 
monument with this inscription: ** Near this place lies 
buried the body of Roger Plaisted, who was killed by 
the Indians October i6, 1675, aged 48 years; also the 
body of his son, Roger Plaisted, who was killed at the 
same time." 

A quick-witted stratagem saved the house of Captain 
Frost at Sturgeon Creek, where this same band of In- 
dians proceeded from Berwick. Captain Frost was 



96 

outside his door, and had ten shots fired at him, harm- 
lessly, before he had time to close it upon the Indians. 
There were only three boys with him in the house, yet 
he had the presence of mind to shout out commands as 
if there were a body of soldiers within. 

"Load quick! Fire, there! That 's well! Brave 
men!" he shouted. And the Indians, doubtless unsus- 
picious, of cunning in the settlers, where they seldom 
found it, concluded that the soldiers here were too many 
for them, and rapidly retreated. 

In the settlements between Piscataqua and Kennebec, 
within the short space of three months, there were 
eighty lives lost, with a great number of dwelling 
houses and other property. 

All business was suspended, harvests were ungathered, 
and homes deserted. Men, women, and children were 
huddled in small garrisons, or in the larger houses, 
which had been as strongly fortified as possible. 

As winter came on there was a revival of the hope of 
peace. The Indians had no provisions on hand, nor 
any means to buy them. Their ammunition was con- 
sumed, the snow was too deep for hunting, and they 
saw that peace or starvation was the alternative before 
them. The sagamores, therefore, requested an armis- 
tice for the whole body of Indians eastward, promising 
to be the submissive subjects of the government, and 
to surrender all captives without ransom. Many of 
those carried into captivity were from time to time re- 
stored, and doubtless welcomed by their friends as if 
they had arisen from the dead. 

Through seven months there was peace, and that the 



97 

war broke out again was not wholly due to the savages. 
There were influences of private gain and personal 
revenge ; and the suspicions of the settlers against the 
Indians were, not unnaturally, but sometimes unfortu- 
nately, never sleeping. 

Several Indians were seized by kidnapers and carried 
off in vessels and sold as slaves in foreign countries. 
Some of the kidnaped Indians were Micmacs from 
Nova Scotia, and the Micmacs were thus led to join 
the Maine tribes in their warfare, 

A council was held at Teconnet, near what is now 
Waterville. It has been thought that if Squando had 
been present the treaty might have been effected ; for 
although Squando's moods were variable, he was known 
to have at that time a strong desire for peace. Madock- 
awando, the chief who was the ruling spirit of the five 
sagamores present, was angry at the distrust shown by 
the settlers in not consenting to sell ammunition to the 
Indians ; and the council broke up without result. 

King Philip was killed in August, 1676, but that did 
not terminate the war. The Indians, who called him 
Metacom, reverenced him as of almost superhuman 
power, and they believed that through his influence, 
even after he had gone to the " happy hunting grounds," 
leaders would be raised up to guide them to victory. 
Squando now came to the front with fresh revelations 
and prophecies. He pretended that God appeared to 
him in the form of a tall man in black clothes, com- 
manding him to leave his drinking of strong liquors, 
and to pray, and to keep Sabbaths, and to go to hear 
the Word preached ; all which things the Indian did 

STO. OF MAINE — 7 



98 

for some years, with great apparent devotion. Squando 
assumed supernatural gifts and powers, but neither he 
nor any of the other great chiefs ever. took upon them- 
selves such earthly state as did King Philip. When an 
ambassador was sent to him from the governor of Mas- 
sachusetts to inquire why he was making preparations 
for war, the Indian haughtily answered: "Your gov- 
ernor is but a subject of King Charles of England. I 
shall not treat with a subject; I shall treat only with 
the king, my brother. When he comes, I am ready." 
Proud King Philip was dead, and his forces were 
scattered ; but many of his warriors joined the Maine 
Indians, and the ravages there were continued with re- 
newed force. Squando was assured by supernatural 
visitants that the destruction of the English would now 
be soon completed. 



IX. AGAMENTICUS AND PASSACONAWAY. 

GORGEANA, the first city of Maine, was planted in 
the wilderness. The ambition of its founder, Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, to establish a colony in Maine had, 
as we have seen in connection with the Plymouth Com- 
pany, been thwarted and disappointed at every point. 

When he secured a private grant of twenty-four 
thousand acres on each side of York River, he deter- 
mined to plant a small colony there at his own expense. 
He called his colony Agamenticus at first, from the name 
of the mountain, famous in the aboriginal legends, which 
looked down upon it. 

*' Agamenticus " signifies, in the Indian tongue, '* the 
other side of the river." The name is applied to a 
beautiful elevation, or rather three elevations joined 
together, well wooded, and rising by gentle slopes, not 
rocky or steep like the Mount Desert mountains, but 
with a large crowning rock upon its summit. This 
mountain .is a famous landmark for mariners, and is 
thought to have been the first land of the New World 
that revealed itself to Gosnold, in 1 603. He is supposed 
to have landed at York Nubble and to have named it 
Savage Rock. The mountain is five or six miles from 
the shore, while Boon Island, the first land to be ap- 
proached in that neighborhood, is seven miles farther, 

99 



lOO 

It was to Agamenticus that Wonolancet, the peace- 
loving son of the great Passaconaway, is thought to have 
retired when he refused to take part in the long and 
bloody King Philip's War. St. Aspinquid, of Indian 
tradition, who died on the mountain, and whose grave- 
stone is still to be seen there, is said to have been Pas- 
saconaway himself. 

St. Aspinquid died May I, 1682, and is said to have 
been born in 1588, being therefore about ninety-four 
when he died. He was over forty when he was con- 
verted to Christianity, and from that time devoted him- 
self to preaching the gospel to the Indians. 

His funeral obsequies were attended by many sachems 
of various tribes, and celebrated by a grand hunt of the 
warriors, at which were slain ninety-nine bears, thirty- 
six moose, eighty-two wild cats, and thirty-eight por- 
cupines. 

That Passaconaway was living at as late a date as 1660 
is shown by an anecdote of that year told of him in an 
ancient Indian biography. 

Manataqua, sachem of Saugus, had made known to 
Passaconaway that he wished to marry his daughter. 
This being agreeable to all parties, the wedding soon 
took place, at the residence of Passaconaway, and the 
hilarity wound up with a great feast. 

According to Indian customs when the contracting 
parties are of high station, Passaconaway ordered a 
select number of his men to accompany the newly mar- 
ried pair to the husband's home. When they had 
arrived there, several days of feasting followed, for the 
entertainment of such of the husband's friends as were 



lOI 



</-■' 



unable to be present at the ceremony, as well as for the 
escort, who, when the rejoicings were over, returned to 
Penacook. 

Some time after, the wife of Manataqua expressed a 
desire to visit her father's house. She was permitted 
to go, and a select company 
was chosen by her husband 
to conduct her safely 
through the forest. When 
she wished to return to 
her husband, her father, 
instead of conveying 
her, as before, sent to 
the young sachem to 
come and take her away. 

Manataqua was 
highly indignant at 
this message, and 
sent his father-in-law 
this answer : ** When 
she departed from me, I 

caused my men to escort her to your dwelling, as be- 
came a chief. She now having an intention to return 
to me, I did expect the same." 

The elder sachem was angry in his turn, and sent 
back an answer which only increased the difficulty, and 
it is supposed that the connection between the new 
husband and wife was terminated by this disregard of 
ceremony on the part of her father. 

Passaconaway's character was certainly like that 
ascribed to St. Aspinquid. In his youth he was sup- 




102 

posed to have magic powers, and his people beheved 
that he could burn a leaf to ashes and then restore to it 
nature's vivid greenness. They never doijbted that he 
could raise a living serpent from the skin of a dead one, 
and many warriors testified that they had seen him turn 
himself into a flame to burn up his enemies. 

As for St. Aspinquid, we may well believe that his 
assumption of magic powers was not wholly abandoned 
after he embraced Christianity, for most of the praying 
Indians clung to some of their savage superstitions, and 
sometimes would divest themselves of their new re- 
ligion as suddenly as if it were a blanket, and rush 
frantically into a powwow or a war dance, or even a 
frenzy of slaughter. But St. Aspinquid died firm in 
the faith delivered to him by the devoted Jesuit mission- 
aries, and in his last days he endeavored to promote 
peace and good will between his people and the whites. 

In 1660, when he felt his end to be drawing near, he 
made a great feast, to which he invited all his widely 
scattered tribes, calling them his children. 

" Hearken," he said, " to the last words of your father 
and friend : The white men are sons of the morning. 
The Great Spirit is their Father. His sun shines bright 
about them. Never make war with them. Sure as you 
light the fires, the breath of heaven will turn the flames 
upon you and destroy you. Listen to my advice. It 
is the last I shall be allowed to give you. Remember 
it, and live." 

A poem on Passaconaway, written by a bard of the 
old days, and extremely popular as a fireside tale, is too 
delightfully quaint to be allowed to pass into oblivion : 



I03 



*' 'Tis said that sachem once to Dover came 
From Penacook, when eve was setting in; 
With plumes his locks were dressed, his eyes 
shot flame ; 
He struck his massy club with dreadful din, 
That oft had made the ranks of battle thin. 
Around his copper neck terrific hung 

A tied-together bear and catamount skin ; 
The curious fish bones o'er his bosom swung; 
And thrice the sachem danced, and thrice 
the sachem sung. 

*' Strange man was he ! 'Twas said he oft 
pursued 
The sable bear and slew him in his den, 
That oft he howled through many a pathless 
wood 
And many a tangled wild and poisonous fen 
That ne'er was trod by other mortal men. 
The craggy ledge for rattlesnakes he sought, 

And choked them one by one, and then 
O'ertook the tall gray moose as quick as 

thought. 
And then the mountain cat he chased, and 
chasing caught. 

• 

"A wondrous wight ! For o'er Siogee's ice 
With brindled wolves, all harnessed three 
and three, 
High seated on a sledge, made, in a trice. 
On Mount Agiocochook of hickory, 
He lashed and reeled and sung right joUily. 
And once, upon a car of flaming fire. 

The dreadful Indian shook with fear to see 
The king of Penacook, his chief, his sire, 
Ride flaming up toward heaven, than any 
mountain higher ! " 



I04 

The last line suggests the curious reverence of the 
Indians for mountain peaks, and their dread of the evil 
spirit whom they supposed to inhabit them. They be- 
lieved that the devout St. Aspinquid had banished it from 
Agamenticus, but thought it dangerous to ascend any 
other high mountain. The summit of Mount Katahdin 
they thought the home of Pamola, an evil spirit very 
great and very strong indeed. His head and face were 
said to be like a man's, his body and feet like an eagle's, 
and he could take up a moose with one of his claws. 
Pamola did not like snowtime, so the tradition ran, 
and at the beginning of winter he rose with a great 
noise, and took his flight to some unknown warmer 
region. 

The story is told of seven Indians who, a great many 
moons ago, too boldly went up the mountain, and were 
certainly killed by the mighty Pamola, for they were 
never heard of more. The tradition handed down from 
earliest times was that an Indian never goes up to the 
summit of Katahdin and lives to return. Passaconaway 
had banished the evil spirit from Agamenticus, but the 
Indians themselves were soon driven away by the new 
settlement. 

Gorges's long-thwarted ambition demanded a great 
and striking success for his colony. He was not willing 
to build a little hamlet and see it gradually expand into 
a village and then a town, after the humble fashion that 
prevailed in Maine. Instead, he inaugurated a city with 
pomp and ceremony, — an old-world city, whose mayor 
and all civil officers wore gorgeous uniforms and the 
insignia of their rank. The mayor was called upon to 



I05 



-'^ •ttTv-^ ' ' ^ '■-' 




4 .^. 'Sh 

















tl*. 




hold semiannual fairs, on the feasts of St. Peter and St. 
James, and to make arrangements that they should be 
held perpetually. 

It was evidently intended to form by ceremonial and 
festival an attractive contrast to the plainness and aus- 
terity of the Puritan settlements in other parts of Maine. 

The poet of Sir Ferdinando's city has perhaps exag- 
gerated a little. He writes : 

*'For hither came a knightly train 

From o'er the sea with gorgeous court ; 
The mayors, gowned in robes of state, 
Held brilliant tourney on the plain, 
And massive ships, within the port, 
Discharged their load of richest freight. 



io6 

Then when at night, the sun gone down 

Behind the western hill and tree, 
The bowls were filled, this toast they crown: 

' Long live the city by the sea ! ' " 

But the city was not destined to live long. Massa- 
chusetts assumed control of Maine by virtue of her 
charter from the English king, and after some resistance 
the inhabitants allowed a large part of the territory to 
be annexed to Massachusetts. Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
died, and his nephew, Thomas Gorges, who had been 
deputy governor of the province of Maine, and was then 
living in state at Gorgeana, had gone on a visit to 
England to secure influence to settle the disturbed con- 
dition of affairs in Maine. 

In his absence the city was sacrificed to the ambition 
of the Massachusetts Bay Company. It was sold out 
to a company, and when Gorges returned he found even 
his residence despoiled, nothing remaining but an old 
pot, a pair of tongs, and a couple of andirons. 

The "civic splendor" had all departed, but it re- 
mained a town, and in 1652 it was ordered at a town 
meeting that " William Hilton have use of ferry for 
twenty-one years, to carry strangers over for twopence 
and for swimming over horses or other beasts, four- 
pence, or for one swum over by strangers therewith, he 
or his servants being ready to attend." 

The overland route from Maine to Massachusetts was 
close by the ocean, and the ferry in constant demand. 
The Indians in that region, whether through the influ- 
ence of Passaconavvay or through the friendliness of the 
settlers, seem to have been less hostile than in the adjoin- 



107 

Ing towns ; for, on their journeys, they frequently pat- 
ronized the ferry, their way of announcing themselves 
as passengers being by a blood-curdling war whoop at 
Mr. Hilton's gate. 

Even in the darkness of the evening, Mrs. Hilton 
would answer the signal, and herself ferry the savages 
across. A squaw who had been indulging in fire water, 
one day, became enraged at Mrs. Hilton's refusal to 
ferry her over, and threw a knife so that it cut off the 
*' thumb cap " of the door latch. But she returned the 
next da3% deeply penitent, and with promises of future 
good behavior. 

The part of the territory of Maine which had been 
annexed to Massachusetts was called the county of 
Yorkshire, and Agamenticus, the late city of Gorgeana, 
received the name of York. But while York continued 
to keep peace with its neighboring Indians, the bands 
of savages that roamed, plundering and slaughtering, 
through the country often swooped down upon it ; and 
in February, 1692, while it was still only a little village 
scattered along the bank of the Agamenticus River, it 
was entirely destroyed, except the garrison houses, by 
a company of nearly three hundred French and Indians, 
who had come through the wilderness from Canada on 
snowshoes. In half an hour they had killed seventy- 
five of the inhabitants, and taken more than a hundred 
prisoners. 

Many of the prisoners were severely wounded, and 
were carried away, in the bitter cold of the winter, by 
the ruthless savages, and very few of them ever saw 
home or friends again. 



io8 

But the little town arose from its ashes. At the close 
of the dreadful King William's War, which was the 
second Indian war and lasted ten years, while King 
Philip's War, bloody and devastating as it was, had 
lasted but three, the destitution and suffering in Maine 
were extreme. 

** No mills, no inclosures, no roads, but, on the con- 
trary, dilapidated habitations, wide, wasted fields, and 
melancholy ruins." But the people of York were not 
wholly discouraged. Among other things, they wanted 
a gristmill. The united resources of the town were not 
sufficient to build one; so they offered to a man in 
Portsmouth a lot of land to build a mill upon, liberty to 
cut all the timber that he needed, and their pledge to 
carry all their corn to his mill, so long as he kept it in 
order. They could not live without the mill, and they 
suffered great suspense for a time, lest their offer 
should not be accepted. What had been Sir Fer- 
dinando's proud city now depended upon a gristmill, 
or the hope of one, for its continued existence. 

The mill was built, and gradually the scattered people 
returned and rebuilt their little log houses. But there 
was no peace for the plucky pioneers. The first disturb- 
ance originated in a report that the settlers were organ- 
izing for a war of extermination upon the savages. 
The Indians were frightened, and began to withdraw 
from the settlements. Even Passaconaway's peaceful 
tribes took alarm, and their departure led the inhabitants 
to believe that they were to join a general uprising of 
the tribes. 

The militia was ordered out, and well-armed soldiers 



109 

patrolled the town of York, every night, from nine until 
morning. The townspeople listened, doubtless with 
heart-sickening dread, for the war whoop that should 
mean more than a demand for Goodman Hilton's ferry- 
boat. 

But this time the horrors of bloodshed were averted. 
Governor Dudley arranged a council with the sagamores 
of the eastern tribes at Falmouth, the 20th of June, 1 703. 

Knowing that the Indians were greatly impressed by 
pomp and ceremony, the governor came to the council 
with an imposing retinue. But the splendor of the 
Indians altogether eclipsed that of their white brethren. 
There were eleven sagamores, and they entered Portland 
harbor with a fleet of sixty- five canoes, containing two 
hundred and fifty warriors, decorated with plumes and 
war paint, and wearing garments gorgeous with fringes 
and beaded embroidery. 

Governor Dudley had brought a great tent, in which 
were gathered his suite and all the Indian chiefs. He 
made a speech to the Indians, in which he declared that 
it was his wish to reconcile every difficulty that had arisen 
since the last treaty, and that he would esteem them all 
as brothers and friends. Simms of the Penobscots was 
the Indian orator of the occasion, and he bore himself 
with much dignity. " We thank you, good brother, for 
coming so far to talk with us," he said. " It is a great 
favor. The clouds gather and darken the sky. But we 
still sing with love the songs of peace. Believe my 
words. So far as the sun is above the earth, so far are 
our thoughts from war or from the least desire of a rup- 
ture between us." 



I lO 

Peace was ratified and presents exchanged, after the 
Indian fashion. There were professions of strong friend- 
ship on either side, and the hearts of the people rejoiced. 
Those who had been ready to depart to safer regions 
remained, and there was even a httle emigration to the 
Maine shores, where land was cheap, valuable timber 
abundant, the soil rich, and the fisheries increasingly 
profitable. But only two months after this encouraging 
peace was made, a company of five hundred French and 
Indians swooped down upon the shore towns, Cape Por- 
poise, Wells, York, Saco, and Casco. Few details re- 
main to us, but it is evident that the slaughter and 
destruction were terrific, and, except the garrison houses, 
scarcely a building remained in those towns. 

In 1707, the six English settlements which were all 
that survived in Maine were those of Wells, Berwick, 
Kittery, Casco, Winter Harbor, and York. The settlers 
continued to suffer constantly from the prowling savages. 
In the summer of 1712 twenty-six of the English were 
killed or carried into captivity in the neighborhood of 
York, Kittery, and Wells. They could not venture into 
the fields without danger of being murdered. Children 
playing upon the doorsteps would be dragged off by the 
savages before their mothers' eyes. 

One of the scouting parties which were continually on 
the march for the defense of the settlements was sur- 
prised, between York and Cape Neddick, on the 14th 
of May, I 712, by a company of thirty Indians. 

The leader of the scouting party, Sergeant Nalton, 
was instantly killed, and seven others, probably wounded, 
were captured. The survivors fled for their lives, and 



1 1 1 

succeeded in reaching the garrison. A Mr. Pickernel, 
hearing of the Indian assault, had left his house, with 
his family, to take refuge in the garrison, when an am- 
bushed Indian shot him dead. His wife was wounded, 
and his little child was scalped. The child, left for 
dead, eventually recovered from the frightful wound, — 
which was very unusual for a victim of the Indians' 
scalping. 

The story of York has seemed worth the telling, not 
only because it was the first city of Maine, but because 
it was one of the towns which through all the wars bore 
the brunt of the Indians' fury, and its survival shows the 
noble courage and persistence of its settlers. Wells, the 
adjoining town, was another settlement upon which the 
Indians' vengeance was especially fierce. The story of 
a little captive from that town forms one of the most 
romantic chapters in Miss C. A. Baker's " True Stories 
of New England Captivities." 

Little Esther Wheelwright was the granddaughter of 
the Rev. John Wheelwright, the first minister of Wells. 
He was a man of high character and great spirituality, 
but of doctrinal peculiarities which had not found favor 
with his Puritan brethren in Massachusetts. So in 1643 
he removed to Wells, and although he afterwards re- 
turned to England, his son, who was also John Wheel- 
wright, remained, shared the fearful struggles with the 
Indians, and was known until his death as a highly re- 
spected citizen. 

His daughter, little Esther, was doubtless a typical 
Puritan girl, dutifully sharing in the household tasks 
of the bare and primitive living, learning her catechism. 



I 12 



and walking to "meeting" in the blockhouse under 
the protection of her father's gun ; and also imbibing 
a wholesome horror of Indians, and of the papistical 
French, their allies. 

In the blockhouse her sister Hannah had been mar- 
ried, on the 1 6th of September, i 7 1 2, to Elisha Plaisted, 

a young man of Portsmouth. The 
Wheelwrights were one of the 
first families of Wells, and 
young Plaisted also 
had good social 
connections and an 
extensive acquaint- 
ance. There were 
guests from Ports- 
mouth and Kittery, 
from York, and even 
from Falmouth. 
Some came by wa- 
ter, some in com- 
panies on horse- 
back, and all were 
well armed. For 
once, privations 
should be forgotten, terrors thrown to the winds, 
and the garrison house, stained with blood and hacked 
by tomahawks though it might be, should be decked 
for a bridal. But alas! there were unexpected, unwel- 
come guests. 

The Indians had heard of the proposed festivi- 
ties, had even made themselves acquainted with the 




113 

ways by which the wedding guests were to come 
and go. 

The ceremony was performed, and there was froHc 
and feasting. It is quite likely that it lasted well into 
the small hours ; when good times are rare, people are 
apt to make the most of them. The first of the guests 
to leave found that two of the horses were missing. 
Sergeant Tucker, Isaac Cole, and Joshua Downing went 
out in search of them. While they were still very near 
the blockhouse, from behind the trees came the fierce 
volleys of two hundred savages ambushed in the forest. 
Joshua Downing and Isaac Cole fell dead, and Sergeant 
Tucker, seriously wounded, was taken captive. 

Out of the blockhouse rushed every man of the 
company at the sound of the guns. Many of them 
were military men, and accustomed to Indian warfare, 
but they did not realize how great was the number 
of their foes. They sprang upon their horses, and, in 
small companies, rode off, in different directions, to 
waylay the Indians and cut off their retreat. But on 
each path that they took were Indians lying in ambush. 
Elisha Plaisted, the bridegroom, who was very brave, 
led seven or eight men, and they rode directly into an 
ambush. 

With one volley the Indians killed every horse. One 
man was killed, and young Plaisted was captured and 
carried away in his wedding garments. In their anxiety 
to secure Plaisted the Indians allowed the others to es- 
cape. His father was a comparatively rich man, and 
they expected to extort from him a large ransom for his 
son. 

STO. OF MAINE — 8 



114 

He was finally ransomed by the payment of ^^300. 
But when, in a fiercer raid and slaughter, little Esther 
Wheelwright was taken captive, the Indians disappeared 
with their prey into the heart of the forest, and there 
was no possibility of a ransom. 

She suffered hardship in the long journey through the 
winter woods to Canada, but the Indians do not seem to 
have treated her cruelly. We hear of her next in the 
Ursuline Convent at Montreal, where the sisters have 
speedily transformed the granddaughter of the Puritan 
divine into a novice with white veil and crucifix. She 
became a devout nun, and although she was at liberty 
to visit her home, she never cared to do so. She died 
full of years and sainthood, the mother superior of the 
Ursuline Convent. 

Little Mary Sereven, the daughter of the Baptist min- 
ister of Wells, carried away by the Indians at the same 
time with Esther Wheelwright, also became a member 
of a Roman Catholic sisterhood, but of her story little 
is known. 

In spite of the continued Indian depredations, 
these coast towns gradually increased and prospered. 
In 1725 York was, next to Falmouth, the most im- 
portant town in Maine. It was of political consequence, 
the shire town, and its inhabitants were men whose opin- 
ions had weight in the councils of the colony. Perhaps 
this was, after all, better than the " civic splendor " of 
Sir Ferdinando's ambition. 

There was, indeed, before long, not a little wealth and 
refinement of living. The last negro slaves held in New 
England were owned there, and the oldest inhabitant 



115 

remembers going to the funerals of two of them and 
seeing them buried at the feet of the master and mis- 
tress who had died before them. 

Now the beautiful York coast and harbor and the 
pretty winding river have attracted swarms of summer 
visitors. Hotels line the wide beaches, and sounds of 
revelry by night awaken even the echoes on Passacona- 
way's lonely mountain. No trace remains of the fa- 
mous old sagamore and saint, except the grave that is 
to be seen on Agamenticus, and his name, bestowed 
upon a fine hotel. 



I 



X. SIMON, THE YANKEE-KILLER. 

AFTER the death of King PhiHp, some of the fierc- 
/V est of his followers fled to Maine and distributed 
themselves among the eastern tribes. Their language 
was radically the same as that of the Maine Indians, but 
they used a dialect as different as was the cut of their 
hair. They were madly warlike, and of the superstitious 
sort, believing themselves commissioned by the Great 
Spirit to destroy the English. 

Some of these fugitive Indians could speak English, 
and three of the most bloodthirsty had acquired the 
English names of Simon, Andrew, and Peter. These 
three had escaped to the Merrimac River, a little while 
before the downfall of King Philip, and tried to conceal 
themselves among the Penacooks, who had remained 
neutral through the war. But the Penacooks surren- 
dered them as murderers, and they were confined at 
Dover for many months, at length making their escape 
and fleeing to Casco Bay. 

They were all villains, but Simon, surnamed the " Yan- 
kee-killer," was the worst. He boasted that he had shot 
at many white settlers, and had only once failed in bring- 
ing his man to the ground. He had killed some settlers 
and taken others captive in Bradford and Haverhill. 

He escaped from Dover prison, made his way to Casco, 

ii6 



117 

and went to Anthony Brackett's house, where he rep- 
resented himself as a *' praying Indian," and completely 
won the confidence of the simple-hearted settler. He 
was a shrewd rascal, and, like Squando and Passacon- 
away, was accredited by the Indians with a knowledge 
of the arts of magic. He apparently accepted the 
religion offered him by the missionaries, and regarded 
it with superstitious awe, as a superior kind of necro- 
mancy. 

Anthony Brackett had lost a cow, and Simon, assum- 
ing great friendliness, declared that he would find the 
Indians who had killed it, and would bring them to 
Brackett's house, of course with the understanding that 
payment or satisfaction of some sort was to be obtained 
from them. 

But Simon came at the head of a company of Indians, 
boldly entered the house, and took possession of Brack- 
ett's firearms. They were the Indians, Simon declared, 
who had killed his cow, and he had kept his promise. 
Now his friend Anthony might take his choice, to serve 
the Indians or be slain by them. Brackett chose to 
serve, and the savages bound him, his wife and five chil- 
dren, and a negro servant. 

Mrs. Brackett's brother, Nathaniel Mitten, resisted, 
and they instantly killed him. Brackett lived on a large 
farm at Back Cove, in Falmouth. There were clearings 
in the wilderness all about the cove, with cabins and 
small farms. Around the cove, at Presumpscot River, 
that day, Benjamin Atwell and Humphrey Durham 
were helping their neighbor, Robert Corwin, to get in 
his hay. The stillness of the beautiful August day was 



ii8 

broken by the report of guns. Simon's men came from 
Anthony Brackett's, in one of the wild frenzies that often 
seemed to seize them as soon as they had shed blood, 
and shot down the three haymakers, who had no means 
of defense. They then went from one cabin to another, 
burning, slaying, and taking prisoners. 

Richard Pike and another man, who chanced to be in 
a canoe on the river, heard the sound of guns, and saw 
a little boy running, wild with terror, toward the river, 
pursued by the maddened, yelling savages. They were 
firing at the boy, and the bullets whistled over the heads 
of the men in the boat. 

Simon himself demanded from the river bank that the 
men should come ashore, but they plied their paddles 
for dear life ; and as they did so they shouted the 
alarm to the inmates of the houses along the river, bid- 
ding them run for their lives to the garrison house. 

The first settlers of Portland had built their homes on 
the promontory, a hundred and sixty feet above the 
level of the sea, then called Cleaves Neck, and here they 
had erected their garrison house to protect them from 
their savage foes. But on this day those w^ho had es- 
caped to the garrison were few and feeble, and so terror- 
stricken that they dared not await the attack from the 
infuriated, merciless savages. They huddled together 
in the few canoes at hand, and sought refuge on the 
island near the harbor's mouth, now known as Cushings 
Island. 

From there they sent a messenger across the water to 
Scarborough (then known as Black Point) for aid. 
After night fell, a small party of men paddled bravely 



119 

across the harbor and secured some powder, which they 
had left behind them in their hasty flight, and which, 
fortunately, the ransacking Indians had failed to find. 

Some of the other settlers succeeded in escaping the 
next day, and joined the fugitives on the island. They 
were in utter destitution, their lives alone being left to 
them. Everything in their homes was plundered or 
destroyed by the Indians. They were helpless, in the 
wilderness, with the bitter winter coming on. 

Casco Neck was depopulated and laid waste. Thirty- 
four persons were either killed or carried into captivity. 
As soon as the dreadful news reached Boston the Gen- 
eral Court sent a vessel with provisions to the starving 
outcasts on Cushings (then called Andrews) Island. 

The following letter, written from Portsmouth at this 
time, will give the reader some conception of the ter- 
ror of those days. The letter was addressed to Major 
General Denison at Ipswich. 

** This serves to cover a letter from Captain Hathorn, 
from Casco Bay, in which you will understand their 
want of bread, which want I hope is w^ell supplied be- 
fore this time ; for we sent them more than two thou- 
sand weight, which, I suppose, they had last Lord's-day 
night. The boat that brought the letter brings also 
word that, Saturday night, the Indians burned Mr. 
Munjoy's house, and seven persons in it. On Sabbath 
day, a man and his wife, one George, were shot dead and 
stripped by the Indians at Wells. Yesterday, at two 
o'clock, Cape Nedick was wholly cut ofi^; only two men 
and a woman, with two or three children, escaped. So 



I20 

we expect now to hear of further mischief every day. 
They sent to us for help, both from Wells and York ; 
but we had so many men out of town that we know not 
how to spare any more. 

" Sir, please send notice to the council that a supply 
be sent to the army from the bay ; for they have eaten 
us out of bread, and here is little wheat to be gotten, 
and less money to pay for it. The Lord direct you and 
us in the great concerns that are before us ; which duti- 
ful service presented in haste, I remain, sir, 

** Your servant, 

" Richard Martin." 

Anthony Brackett and his wife made their escape in 
a remarkable manner. It will be remembered that they 
were the first victims of Simon's raid, on that August 
day when the peaceful harvesting was going on at 
Casco Neck. When the Indians who had taken them 
captive, with Brackett, his wife, five children, and a ne- 
gro servant, had reached the north side of Casco Bay, 
they heard the news of the taking of Arrowsic garrison 
house in Kennebec, with all its stores. They were over- 
joyed at this, and were anxious to be on hand to share 
the booty. Simon, notwithstanding his necromancy 
and superstition, had always a practical mind and was 
especially eager for gain. 

The Indians were in such haste to reach Kennebec 
that they promised Brackett and his wife a share of the 
spoils if they would hasten after them, bringing along a 
burden which each had been given to carry. 

Mrs. Brackett had seen an old birchen canoe lying at 



I2T 



the waterside, and was inspired by the hope that it 
might be a providential opportunity offered for their 
escape. 

She first prudently asked the Indians to let the negro, 
their own servant, help them to carry their burdens, a 
request which Simon immediately granted. Then they 
begged a piece or two of meat, which was not denied 
them, Simon showing the curious mixture of kindness 
and ferocity which always distinguished him, as well as 
several of the other more noted Indians. Thus being 
furnished with help and provisions, the Indians leaving 
them to follow behind with their burdens and 
a young child, they could but look upon 
the whole circumstance '* as a divine 
mandate to shift for themselves." 

Mrs. Brackett also found a needle 
and thread in the house where they 
staid, on the east side of the 
bay, and with that she mended 
the canoe so that it was water- 
tight. They all hastily em- 
barked, and in that old ca- 
noe, which had been aban- 
doned as being past 
repair, they crossed a 
water space eight or 
nine miles broad. 

They were in dan- 
ger and in great terror 

of meeting Indians at Black Point, but fortunately the 
savages had just gone. Instead of hostile savages, they 




122 

found at Black Point a vessel bound for Piscataqua, on 
which they made their final escape from the Yankee- 
killer and his savage horde. 

Anthony Brackett's brother-in-law writes patheti- 
cally to his mother of the dreadful calamity : 

*' Honoured Mother : After my Duty and my 
wife's, presented to yourself, these may inform you of 
our present health, of our present being when others of 
our friends are by the barbarous Heathen cut off from 
having a being in this World. The Lord of late hath 
renewed his Witnesses against us and hath dealt very 
bitterly with us, in that we are deprived of the Societie 
of our nearest Friends, by the breaking in of the Adver- 
sarie against us. 

" On Friday last, in the Morning, your own son, with 
your two sons-in-law, Anthony and Thomas Brackett, 
with their whole Families were killed and taken by the 
Indians, we know not how; 'tis certainly known by us 
that Thomas is slain and his wife and children carried 
away captive. 

" And of Anthony and his Familie we have no Tid- 
ings and therefore think that they might be captivated 
the Niffht before, because of the Remoteness of their 
Habitation from neighbourhood. 

" Goodman Corbin and all his Familie, Goodman 
Lewis and his wife, James Russ and all his Familie, 
Goodman Durham, John Munjoy and Daniel Wakeley, 
Benjamin Hadwell and all his Familie are lost. All 
slain by Sun an Hour high in the Morning and after. 

" Goodman Wallis his dwelling House, and none be- 



123 

sides his, is burnt. There are of men slain i i ; of 
women and children 23 killed and taken. We that are 
living are forced upon Mr. Andrews his Island to secure 
our own and the Lives of our Families. We have but 
little Promise and are so Few in Number that we are 
not able to bury the Dead till more Strength come to us. 
The Desire of the People to yourself is that you would 
be pleased to speak to Mr. Munjoy and Deacon Phillips 
that they would entreat the Governor that forthwith Aid 
might be sent to us, either to fight the Enemie out of 
our Borders, that our English corn may be inned in, 
whereby we may comfortably live, or remove us out of 
Danger that we may provide for ourselves elsewhere. 
Having no more at Present but desiring your Prayers to 
God for his Preservation of us in these Times of Danger 
I rest, 

** Your dutiful Son, 

'' Thaddeus Clark. 
''From Casco Bay, 14, 6, 76. 
" Remember my love to my sister, etc." 
Direction : " These for his honoured Mother, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Harvy, living in Boston." 

This band of Indians, under the leadership of Simon, 
began the hideous and wanton cruelties which make the 
details of the wars with the Indians in Maine too terri- 
ble to relate. Simon, an Indian like Squando, super- 
stitious, and with a vague sense of a peculiar mission 
and peculiar powers, was utterly cruel and vindictive 
when his passion of hatred was thoroughly aroused. 

The taking of the Arrowsic garrison house, the news 



T24 

of which had helped the Brackett family to escape, was 
accomplished by a part of Simon's band which had 
separated from the others as a matter of strategy. It 
was one of the strongest fortresses in Maine, and the 
little settlement upon the beautiful Arrowsic Island was 
remarkably prosperous. Captain Lake, one of the pro- 
prietors, who was a rich man, had built a fine mansion 
there, as well as a strong fortress, with storehouses and 
mills. 

. In the dead of the night a hundred Indians had landed 
stealthily upon the southeastern point of the island, 
made their lurking, catlike way through the woods, and 
crept in at the fort gate. Once inside the portholes, 
they, with fiendish yells, announced their mastery of the 
fort. 

The inmates, thus terribly surprised, made at first a 
fierce resistance ; but seeing that the number of their 
enemies made it utterly hopeless. Captain Lake and 
Captain Davis, who were in charge of the fort, fled, with 
a few others, by a rear exit, and attempted to escape in 
a canoe to another island. 

The Indians pursued and fired upon them, and Cap- 
tain Lake was killed. Captain Davis, wounded and 
crippled, was still able to land, and hid among the rocks, 
remaining for several days in severe suffering. Then, 
by the use of one arm, he succeeded in paddling to the 
mainland. 

The Indians burned all the buildings, with all provi- 
sions and supplies, upon Arrowsic Island, and left the 
pleasant little settlement a scene of utter desolation. 
About a dozen persons were so fortunate as to escape, 



125 

while thirty-five were either killed or carried into cap- 
tivity. 

The terrified settlers in the region fled from their 
homes to Monhegan, where it was easier to defend them- 
selves than on the mainland. But clouds of smoke 
continually ascending from New Harbor, Corbins Sound, 
and Pemaquid, warned them that the savages were still 
at their terrible work of slaughter, pillage, and destruc- 
tion ; and in destitution and despair they crowded on 
board a vessel, and sailed for Piscataqua and Salem. 

On Munjoys (now Peaks) Island, about three miles 
from " the main," there w^as an old stone house which 
served as a garrison for many families of settlers fleeing 
for their lives from their burning homes. 

All along the coast, for sixty miles east of Casco Bay, 
the ravages of the Indians extended. The sunshiny 
peace and plenty of the summer had given w^ay to ter- 
ror and death and destitution. 

Again and again the settlers, with what seems an 
astonishing lack of prudence, allowed themselves to be 
surprised by the Indians under the leadership of the 
wily Simon. Some of the fugitives escaped to a garri- 
son house on Jewells Island, and were pursued by the 
Indians, who were so elated that they no longer gave 
themselves the trouble of any secrecy or ambush. They 
landed on the island openly and with their dreadful war 
whoops. Strange to say, there was no sentinel on the 
watch, no guard whatever. The men had all gone fish- 
ing, the women were washing at a brook, the children 
were scattered about the shore. 

The Indians immediately took possession of the 



126 



house, cutting off the retreat of the women and children, 
and leaving the men no opportunity to return. 

One small boy, left alone in the house, bravely fired 
two guns and shot two Indians. The men, off in fishing 
boats, heard the guns, and knew what was happening. 
One man rowing rapidly to shore was seen by his little 
son, who rushed to meet him. An Indian pursued the 

child, and seized him just as 



,,\*i 




'■^^ '''^^{^ h^/ ' he reached the shore. The 

father leveled his gun and 
could have shot the In- 
ji. "^ dian, but dared not lest 
he should also kill his 
child. He fled to 
Richmans Island for 
aid. The other men, 
brave, although they 
must have been 
hopeless, cut their 
way through the In- 
dians and regained 
the fortress. In this 
desperate effort two 
were killed, and five, 
probably disabled by wounds, were made prisoners and 
carried away by the victorious savages. 

The Indians, who never exposed themselves to the 
guns of the settlers in the open field, hurried across the 
bay to Spurwink with their prisoners. A government 
vessel came, soon after, and carried the remaining 
Englishmen to a place of safety. 



127 

A band of Indians, led by Simon, crossed the Pis- 
cataqua River to Portsmouth, burned a house, and 
took a woman with a baby captive, and also a young 
girl. There was an old woman in the family, but Simon 
said she should not be harmed, because she had, years 
before, shown kindness to his grandmother. He also 
gave the infant into her care. Simon was one of the 
'* praying Indians," and seems certainly to have known 
the better way, if he did not follow it. 

It is related that Simon once sat with an English 
judge to decide upon a criminal case. Several women, 
Simon's wife among the rest, had committed some 
offense. Judge Almy thought that they should be 
punished with eight or ten stripes each. 

" No," said Simon; *' four or five are enough. Poor 
Indians are ignorant. It is not Christian to punish as 
severely those who are ignorant as those who have 
knowledge." The judgment prevailed. But then Judge 
Almy inquired : '' How many stripes shall your wife 
receive? " Simon promptly replied : '* Double, because 
she had knowledge to have done better." 

Judge Almy, out of regard for Simon, remitted his 
wife's punishment entirely. Simon seemed much dis- 
turbed, but at the time he said nothing. Soon after, 
however, he remonstrated very severely against the de- 
cision of the judge, saying that his wife had had a chance 
to learn better. " To what purpose," said he, " do we 
preach a religion of justice if we do unrighteousness in 
judgment? " 

This event took place when Simon was an aged man, 
and when, by the power of Christianity, his character 



128 i 

may have been greatly changed. Like so many of the I 

wary old sagamores, Simon survived all the fierce and ' 

bloody wars in which he invariably " graced battle's 
brunt," and died at a very great age, probably in hope 
of happy hunting grounds hereafter. 



1 

i 



XL THE STORY OF BARON CASTINE. 

IN 1667, at about the time when the treaty of Breda 
was ratified, and the region of the Penobscot passed 
again into the hands of the French, the old fortified 
peninsula, 'Biguyduce, where D'Aulneyhad reigned, had 
another well-born Frenchman as its lord. Jean Vincent, 
Baron de St. Castin, Casteins, or Castine, as the name 
is variously written, but soon known to the province of 
Maine as Baron Castine, appeared among the Tarratines, 
or Penobscot Indians, soon obtained great influence over 
them, and settled at 'Biguyduce, which is now known 
by his name. 

Born at Beam, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and pos- 
sessed of both wealth and rank, he showed an early 
taste for a soldier's life, and entered the French army. 
When very young he served with distinction against 
the Turks, and this obtained for him an appointment as 
colonel in the king's bodyguards. From this office he 
was transferred to the command of a noted regiment, 
known as the Carrignau Salieres. He came to the New 
World through the influence of the governor general 
of New France, and, with his troops, was ordered to 
Quebec. 

At the close of the war the regiment was disbanded, 
and, for some reason now unknown, the brave and am- 

STO. OF MAINE — 9 129 



I30 



I !! 



mm 



^'p^' 



bitious soldier was discharged from the king's service. 
Whether this so greatly imbittered him as to have been, 
alone, the cause of his subsequent singular course of 
life, or whether there were other mysterious and more 

secret reasons, will prob- 
Al ably never be known. 
\0/(v He remained in the 

wilderness, and, as La 
Hontan, the French 
v^ ^ \ C-MP'-^<- ^y traveler and histo- 
^^^<r^*Lm\ ^-^^ rian says, '* threw 
himself upon the sav- 
ages." For the first 
years of his abode among 
the savages, he lived 
in such a manner as 
to secure their es- 
teem " to a higher 
degree than words 
can describe." 
He did not live altogether as a 
"^ ^;j^ savage among the savages. He built 
himself a comfortable and commodious 
house on the peninsula, suitable for a dwell- 
ing and for trading purposes also, and he 
entertained constantly the Jesuit mission- 
''^h aries, as D'Aulney had done; for while. he 
JiMUS'l was a more liberal Roman Catholic than his 
^' predecessor, he was devout and very punc- 
tilious in his religious observances. Few men in the his- 
tory of our country have had a more romantic career. 





131 

He learned to speak with ease the Indian tongue of 
the tribe he had joined, the Abenaques, who were said 
to have come from broken tribes that had migrated from 
Maine to Canada, He kept himself supphed with fire- 
arms and ammunition, with steel traps and blankets, and 
plenty of the tinsel and beads always especially desired 
by the savages ; and, besides making them presents, he 
opened a valuable trade with them in these articles, re- 
ceiving furs and skins in return, always at his own 
prices. " By degrees," says La Hontan, " he accumu- 
lated a fortune, which any other person would have 
appropriated to his own benefit by retiring with two 
or three hundred thousand dollars in solid gold coin." 

But Castine made no other use of his wealth than to 
buy merchandise, which he presented as gifts to his 
brother savages, who, returning from their hunting ex- 
peditions, presented him with beaver skins of triple their 
value. He taught the Indians the use of firearms and 
some of the arts of war, which afterwards gave them a 
great advantage over other tribes ; and this, together with 
his Roman Catholic religious ceremonies, always deeply 
impressive and attractive to the Indian temperament, 
made them regard him almost as a god. 

His finst wife was the daughter of Madockawando, 
sagamore of the Tarratines, or Penobscot Indians. He 
had many daughters ; they were all advantageously 
married to Frenchmen, and each received an ample 
dowry. He had one son, known as Castine the 
Younger, whom we shall hear of later. The baron 
seemed always thoroughly contented with his lot. His 
wild life apparently suited his tastes, and he en- 



132 

joyed, while he never abused, his supremacy over the 
Indians. 

He conformed himself in all respects to the manners 
and customs of the savages. He dressed himself and 
his family after the Indian fashion, and they all spoke 
the Indian tongue. But he was never able, even with 
the help of the Jesuit missionaries, to convert any of 
them to Christianity. The Indians' apparent devotion 
to the church was nothing deeper than a childish and 
superstitious fondness for its ceremonials. And yet the 
devoted Jesuit priests bore all the hardships of exile, 
and were never discouraged ; for they " considered the 
baptism of a single dying child worth many times 
more than the pain and the suffering of dwelling with 
this people." 

Baron Castine, having so great power over the Indian 
tribes, and having accumulated so much wealth, was 
highly regarded by the governors both of New England 
and of Canada, and his favor was sought by all the colo- 
nists. But he was not always left in peaceful posses- 
sion of his beautiful peninsula of 'Biguyduce. 

The Dutch, at war with the English, were making 
desperate efforts to secure settlements in the New 
World. Having just recovered the fort at New York, 
they were seized with an ambition to possess them- 
selves of some of the strongholds in the province of 
IMaine, and they dispatched an expedition against Baron 
Castine's 'Biguyduce. 

Before the Dutch fleet reached the Penobscot, a treaty 
of peace was signed between England and Holland, and 
it was forced to turn back. But this attempt turned the 



133 

attention of Andros, governor of New England, to the 
value of the French possessions in Maine, and he was 
moved to make an attempt to seize the fortress of 
'Biguyduce. He sailed in a well-equipped frigate under 
command of Captain George, and landed in the harbor, 
directly beneath the old fort and the dwelling of the 
baron. As soon as he arrived he sent to Baron Cas- 
tine, by a lieutenant, due notice that the governor 
of New England was on board the warship, and ready 
for an interview if the baron desired one. 

But the baron was far too wary to risk being taken 
prisoner in that way. He had already gathered together 
his family and taken shelter with them in the deep 
woods behind the fort, leaving his possessions at the 
mercy of the unexpected visitors. 

The Englishmen seized the household furniture, fire- 
arms, ammunition, and coarse cloths, and put them on 
board the frigate; but they in no wise injured the 
baron's Roman Catholic altar, chapel service, pictures, 
ornaments, or buildings. 

Governor Andros had brought with him carpenters 
and materials to repair the fortification and make it a 
strong garrison. But it had been originally constructed 
in greater part of stone and turf, and was so far crum- 
bling to decay that he finally decided to abandon the 
undertaking and the place. Stopping at Pemaquid on 
his return, Governor Andros had a parley with the 
Indians, in which he told them never to follow nor yet 
fear the French. 

To a Tarratine sachem he said : " Tell your friend 
Castine that if he will render loyal obedience to the King 



134 

of England every article taken from him shall be re- 
stored at this place," But the baron had no liking for 
either English or French, and was determined to be 
his own master. He wished, also, to be master of the 
Indians, and they were always willing to be his loyal 
subjects. 

In the beginning of King William's War the great 
chief Madockawando, whose daughter was Castine's 
wife, was an advocate of peace, and engaged to negoti- 
ate a treaty, in which Egremet of Machias, another great 
chief, and the three Etechemin tribes would probably 
have joined had not the movement been prevented by 
Baron Castine. He also encouraged and fortified the 
Indian fighters b}^ furnishing every one of them with a 
roll of tobacco, a pound of powder, and two pounds of 
lead. When the fatal assault was made upon Falmouth 
and Fort Loyal (at Casco Neck), the attacking party, 
consisting of Frenchmen from Quebec and Algonquin 
and Sokokis Indians, was reenforced by an unknown 
number of Indians from the eastward, under Castine and 
Madockawando. 

The whole were seen to pass over Casco Bay in a 
great flotilla of canoes. These eastern (Penobscot) In- 
dians had been trained bv Castine in the arts of war, 
and under his command were a formidable body of 
soldiers. 

The French and Indians were successful at the first 
onslaught. They rushed into the town of Falmouth, 
and fell furiously upon all the fortifications except Fort 
Loyal. All the people who could not escape into the 
fort were killed. 



135 

After making a courageous defense through the day, 
the volunteer soldiers and the townsmen found that 
their ammunition was nearly exhausted, and having no 
hope of recruits or supplies, they sought shelter, under 
the cover of darkness, in the public garrison. The next 
morning the attacking party, finding the village aban- 
doned, plundered the houses and set them on fire, and 
then stormed the garrison. 

A gallant defense was made by the garrison ; the 
attempt upon it failed, and much havoc was made in the 
ranks of the enemy by the fort guns. Repulsed in open 
warfare, the French and Indians made their way into a 
deep ditch, or gully, where they were secure from shots, 
and began to work toward the fort, for the purpose of 
undermining its walls. 

For four days and nights the}^ worked incessantly ; 
they were then within a few feet of the fort, and they 
demanded its surrender. 

The brave defenders of the garrison were exhausted 
by fatigue and anxiety. Their captain had received a 
mortal wound. More than half their number were killed 
or wounded. They were utterly despairing of relief or 
reenforcement from without, and they began a parley 
which resulted in terms of surrender. 

By these terms it was agreed that all within the gar- 
rison should receive kind treatment, and be permitted 
to go into the nearest provincial town under the pro- 
tection of a guard. 

It was Baron Castine who raised his right hand and 
swore by the everlasting God that these conditions should 
be faithfully observed ; but it was Burneffe, the French 



I ^6 









commander, who was severely blamed by Frontenac, 
the governor of Canada, for the breaking of the oaths. 

In a most shocking manner 
were the solemn promises dis- 
regarded. When the gates 
were opened, the seventy 
prisoners,including women 
and children, were re- 
ceived with taunt and 
insult. The French 
allowed the savages 
cruelly to murder the 
women and children 
and the wounded men. 
The four or five men who 
were unwounded the en- 
emy took with them, on 

a march of twenty-four days, 

-'..^i'h^->U }yjl ^o Quebec. 

In all the battles in which he engaged 
Castine seems to have fully shared the 
fierceness and brutality of the savages. 
But his son, Castine the Younger, was 
a man of noble character as well as 
of unusual ability. In Queen Anne's 
War he served among the French, 
and was sent with dispatches to Gov- 
ernor Vaudreuil in Canada. 

This was after Port Royal had 
fallen into the hands of the English ; 
and Castine's companion was Major 




137 

Levengston, an officer of the English army. Their 
mission was to inform Governor Vaudreuil that Acadia 
" had been taken by the Enghsh ; that all its inhabit- 
ants, except those within the pale of Port Royal, 
were prisoners at discretion ; and that if the barbari- 
ties practiced by the savages under his control were 
not discontinued, reprisals would be made or retaliation 
inflicted upon the French of Nova Scotia." 

The messengers, young Castine and Major Leveng- 
ston, set out with three Indian guides. They went first 
to 'Biguyduce, where Castine spent a few days with his 
family, and where Levengston was most hospitably re- 
ceived. They then paddled up the Penobscot River in 
their canoes to the island of Lett (now Oldtown), where 
they found fifty canoes and twice as many Indians, be- 
sides women and children. 

They remained there several days, and during their 
stay a prisoner, taken shortly before by the Indians at 
Winter Harbor, had, in hunting with the Indian who had 
him in charge, made his escape, carrying off both the 
Indian's canoe and gun. The exasperated Indian had 
vowed to kill the first white man whom he saw, and as 
soon as he met Levengston he seized him by the 
throat, and would have dispatched him with a single 
stroke of his hatchet, had not Castine nobly thrust him- 
self between them. 

Castine's admixture of Indian blood not only increased 
his influence over the savages, but gave him the physi- 
cal hardihood and endurance necessary for the prolonged 
exposures and perils of warfare in the wilderness. The 
messengers were for forty-two days in the woods be- 



138 

fore they reached Quebec. The day after they set out 
Levengston's canoe was upset, his gun and his supphes 
were sunk, and one of the guides was drowned. 

It was now December, and when the ice began to 
form, the other canoe became leaky and unsafe. So 
they were forced to leave it and make the remainder of 
the journey by land. 

They traveled by the compass, and the weather was 
much of the time stormy or foggy. For nineteen con- 
secutive days they did not see the sun. Their track 
lay over mountains, through dreary swamps thick with 
spruce and cedars, and for many days they waded knee- 
deep in snow. 

Six days before they could by any possibility reach a 
human habitation, they had consumed all their provi- 
sions, and were forced to subsist upon the leaves of wild 
vegetables, the inner bark of trees, and the few dried 
berries which they occasionally found. When at last 
they reached Quebec, Castine was the only one not 
wholly overcome by the hardships of the journey. 

The mission was, after all, unsuccessful. They 
brought back only a letter from Governor Vaudreuil, 
in which he said : 

" Never have the French, and seldom have the In- 
dians, treated their English captives with inhumanity. 
Nor are the French, in any event, accountable for the 
behavior of the Indians. But a truce, and even a neu- 
trality, if the English had desired it, might, long since, 
have terminated the miseries of war. And should any 
retaliatory measures be adopted by the English, they 
will be amply revenged by the French." 



139 

Castine had performed his mission faithfully, al- 
though his sympathies were, of course, entirely with 
the French. But not for many years after that was 
there to be any peace between the French and the 
English claimants of American territory. 

The younger Castine, who was a chief sagamore of 
the Tarratine (Penobscot) Indians, held also a commis- 
sion from the French king. He was the grandson of 
Madockawando, the mighty Tarratine chief, and he 
himself married an Indian wife, and had a son to 
whom he gave the French name of Robardee or 
Robardeau. He had also a daughter, whose son. Cap- 
tain Sokes, was a noted chief of the Penobscots. The 
younger Castine himself preferred to wear always the 
Indian dress, although he sometimes appeared in the 
elegant uniform of an officer of the French army. 

He was a man of great magnanimity and of a high 
sense of honor ; and the confidence reposed in him by 
the English in making him the companion of Leveng- 
ston through the wilderness was well placed. A man 
of foresight and good sense, he perceived how these 
wars wasted away the Indians, and he bade earliest 
welcome to the songs of peace. " He thought his tribe 
happy only when they enjoyed the dews and shades 
of tranquillity." 

In I 72 I he was "improperly seized" at 'Biguyduce 
and carried to Boston, where he was detained for several 
months. No reason wliatever is given or suggested for 
this strange proceeding, but it seems probable that 
Castine, who, like his father, strongly objected to inter- 
ference, may have been moved by it to desert the colo- 



140 

nies ; for he went the next year to Beam, his father's old 
home in the Pyrenees, claimed as his inheritance his 
father's honors, fortune, and seignioral rights, and re- 
turned no more. 

Whether the role of a French nobleman suited him 
better than that of an Indian chieftain, whether, in the 
splendor and gayety of the French court, he ever longed 
for the untrammeled life of the wilderness, for the wig- 
wam fires and the dusky faces of his kindred, there are 
no records left to tell us. 



M' 



XII. A MAINE SINDBAD. 

ANY a Maine boy has had a story worth the 
telhng-, even in those old days when privation 
and struggle for existence were the common, almost the 
universal, lot. Energy and unyielding grit were devel- 
oped in the hard conditions of life, as well as in unself- 
ish heroism and patriotism. There were many greater 
heroes and patriots than William Phips ; but his were 
such strange fortunes for a Yankee boy that we read 
them as we read an ''Arabian Nights " tale ; and whether 
we think him a reckless adventurer, or a planner and 
performer of shrewd business enterprises, we may, at 
least, always admire his tireless energy. 

There were twenty-six children in the Phips family, 
who lived in the little settlement of Woolwich, on the 
Kennebec, and twenty-one of these were sons. Twenty- 
one reclaimers of the wilderness, twenty-one defenders 
against the Indians, — that was the way in which they 
reckoned sons in those days. The elder Phips was a 
gunsmith by trade. He had emigrated from Bristol, 
England, while the colonies were yet very new, and 
taken up his residence on their outskirts. William, who 
was born on the 2d of February, 165 1, must have 
thought, in his earliest years, that the universe was com- 
posed of wilderness and wild Indians. 

141 



142 






He was one of the youngest of the twenty-six, and 
his father died when he was but a lad. The boy had no 
opportunity even to learn to read, but, as soon as he 

was old enough, was set to 

,., — ^ tending sheep, and he 

i'^'^'^-'- followed this unambi- 



tious and unexciting 

calling until he was eighteen. 

But Woolwich was on the river, 

and the forests contained much 

fine timber, and so the settlers 




;4vi^^'w^'^^\ ^ y itHitf' had early taken to shipbuilding 
"^^ Mu i?vt'i|. ?*Miift The sheep-tender had a restlesj 



.>'>mM 




and roving spirit, and when he saw 

the ships sail off to distant and unknown 

shores his heart burned within him. No 

one, however, would take him as a sailor; and so, as 

the next best chance in life, he apprenticed himself to 

a ship carpenter. 

Apprenticeships were long and dreary in those days. 
For four years young William Phips served his master, 
and the only relief he found from the uncongenial and 
monotonous labor was in an occasional coasting trip. 
His serving time being over, his friends tried to induce 
him to settle down in the ship-carpentering line at 
home ; but the ancient divine Cotton Mather, who was 
his friend, says that " visions of future greatness had 
already visited him and tempted him to seek, in the 
great, untried world, the fulfillment of his dreams." 

Even in his sheep-tending days he was accustomed 
to boast to his companions that he was ** born for better 



143 

things;" and his after career shows quite plainly that 
he had the visionary mind, which is not apt to be a 
fortunate characteristic, and which is seldom allied to 
such force and energy as he possessed. This force and 
energy would almost assuredly have brought him suc- 
cess of some kind ; it was his adventurous spirit and his 
visionary mind that determined the very unusual char- 
acter of the success. 

Finding that no good luck came in his way, he tried 
to find it by going to Boston. This was in 1673, when 
he was twenty-two years old. There he worked at his 
trade of ship-carpentering for about a year, and in his 
leisure time learned to read and write. And there he 
married the widow of a merchant named Hull. She was 
many years older than he, and she possessed a small 
fortune. He used this pecuniary advantage to extend 
his business, and made a contract to build a vessel for 
some Boston merchants on Sheepscot River, near the 
mouth of the Kennebec. He had launched the ship, and 
was preparing to load it with lumber for the Boston 
market, when an Indian attack on the Sheepscot settle- 
ment forced him to change his plans. The settlers, 
fleeing from their burning homes and the merciless 
savages, took refuge on board Phips's new ship, which 
lay in the river. 

So, instead of carrying a cargo of lumber, lie imme- 
diately sailed away with the unfortunate settlers, and 
landed them, free of charge, in Boston. This failure of 
his plan caused him financial difficulty; but his sanguine 
temperament preserved him from despondency, and he 
always prophesied loftiest greatness when his fortunes 



144 

were at their lowest ebb. When his wife's views of the 
future were gloomy, he would confidently assure her that 
he should " yet have the command of a king's ship, and 
would buy her a fair brick house in the Green Lane of 
North Boston." 

He had credulity enough to mistake his own sanguine 
expectations for mysterious presentiments. But he was 
not wholly a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions. 
He never ceased to try with might and main to get 
the king's ship and the fair brick house ; but for the 
next ten years he seemed to come no nearer to success. 
He built ships and made short trading trips, with only 
sufficient success to keep him from want ; and if he was 
engaged in any more ambitious schemes, they came to 
nothing. 

About 1684 there was a sudden, exciting opportunity 
to acquire great wealth, which was stirring the imagina- 
tions and arousing the greed of all the European nations. 
Spain had received a great influx of wealth from her 
colonies in the West Indies and South America, and it 
had come in the tangible, intoxicating shape of coin and 
bullion. Secret expeditions and open piracies were un- 
dertaken to secure a share of Spain's wealth. 

The British sailors were the most daring, and there 
were many semipiratical expeditions from England, like 
Drake's and Raleigh's. This was the time of Robert 
Kidd's career, and it has even been asserted that Eng- 
lish lords and earls were associated with that famous 
pirate. 

This Spanish wealth gave rise to a mania for hunting 
for mines of gold and silver; it was the cause of the 



145 

settlement in Virginia, made by a division of the Plym- 
outh Company, and we have read how a returned In- 
dian captive cunningly misled the English by a fiction 
of gold and copper mines. 

Exaggerated reports were spread abroad of the treas- 
ure which was transported in galleons from the West 
Indies and South America to Spain, and every account 
of a wreck aroused wild hopes of recovering the treas- 
ure. This was the sort of thing to attract the man into 
whom our visionary Maine boy had developed. 

Somewhere about the Bahama Islands, a Spanish 
vessel, laden with treasure, had been wrecked, and 
Phips made a voyage in search of the wreck in his own 
small vessel. He found the wre(5k, but the value of the 
treasure recovered from it was not sufficient to pay the 
expense of the voyage. Before he returned he had 
heard of a vessel, far more heavily laden with gold, that 
had been wrecked, more than half a century before, near 
Porta de la Plata. 

During all the fifty years the sunken treasure had 
been a fireside and a fo'c's'le tale, but no resolute effort 
had been made to find it. Phips had the spirit, but not 
the funds, for the undertaking. So he set out for Lon- 
don, to try to interest the English government in the 
recovery of the treasure. That he should have suc- 
ceeded has always been considered a marvel. A Yan- 
kee sea captain, without influence, education, or prop- 
erty, he was appointed, before the year was ended, to 
the command of the Rose Algier, a ship equipped with 
eighteen guns and ninety-five men, to search for the 
sunken treasure. One version of the story is that Phips 

STO. OF MAINE — lO 



146 

found access to the king himself, who loved a ship and 
a sailor, and was himself of a romantic and adventurous 
turn. 

However this may have been, the Rose Algier and 
her bold commander sailed away, unprovided with 
proper implements to prosecute the search for the 
treasure, and with no pilot who knew where the ship 
went down. 

The crew that he had shipped was a lawless one, 
eager for Spanish treasure, but unused to the discipline 
of a warship. The irksome restraints and the fruitless 
searching for treasure in the depths of the ocean soon 
wearied and discouraged the sailors. Phips was obliged 
to contend with open* mutiny, and the demand that the 
ship should be used for a piratical expedition against 
small Spanish settlements and Spanish ships. 

For a time his courage and determination held the 
mutineers in check ; but at length the reckless sailors 
came armed to the quarter-deck, and attempted to com- 
pel him to adopt their plans of piracy. 

Phips, unarmed, and taken by surprise, was yet able 
to make prisoners of several of the leaders of the mutiny, 
and to frighten the others into submission. Soon after- 
wards the ship was found to need repairs, and Phips was 
obliged to anchor at a small and uninhabited island. It 
was necessary to make an encampment on shore for the 
ship's stores, which had to be removed on account of 
the repairs. 

The ship was careened by the side of a great pro- 
jecting rock, and a little bridge built to the shore. This 
enabled the mutinous crew to retire to the woods and 



147 

form, in privacy, a new plan. They agreed to return 
to the ship in the evening, overpower Phips and the 
seven or eight men who were with him, and put them 
ashore upon the barren island ; then the mutineers, 
who were nearly a hundred in number, would take 
possession of the ship, and use it for any piratical ex- 
pedition they might choose. 

Only a slight chance, or Providence, prevented the 
success of the wicked scheme. The conspirators de- 
cided that the carpenter, who was on board the vessel, 
would be a necessary, and probably a willing, member 
of their party. They invented a pretext to send for 
him ; and when he came, and they found him somewhat 
reluctant to join them, they threatened him with instant 
death. He pretended to accede to their demands, but 
when he returned to the ship for his tools, they sent two 
or three men with him as a watch and guard. Once on 
board, he feigned a sudden illness, and ran down to the 
cabin for medicine. 

There he found the captain, and hastily whispered to 
him the danger. Phips's orders to him were to return 
to the shore with his guard, and to pretend that he was 
in full agreement with the mutineers. The rest was to 
be left to Phips. 

He called to him the faithful few who remained with 
him upon the vessel, and gave them their orders. It 
was now within two hours of the time when the muti- 
neers would return from the woods to carry their das- 
tardly plan into execution. They had carried several 
guns on shore ; and from these Phips ordered the 
charges to be taken. All the other ammunition, was 



148 

removed to the ship. Then the bridge was hurriedly 
taken up, and the ship's loaded guns were trained to 
command the approach to the encampment. 

When the mutineers appeared from the woods, Phips 
hailed them, and warned them that they would be fired 
upon if they came near the stores. The bridge was then 




laid again, and the faithful sailors began to remove the 
stores to the vessel. The mutineers were told that if 
they did not keep at a distance they would be abandoned 
to perish upon the island — the fate they had planned for 
the captain. 

The mutineers had no ammunition, and therefore 
could make no resistance ; and so all they could do was 
to throw down their arms and profess their penitence 
and their willingness to abandon their piratical scheme. 
They were finally allowed to return to the vessel, but 
they were deprived of their arms, and a strict watch was 
kept over them. 



149 

Phips, feeling that it was not safe, with this crew, to 
spend any more time groping in the ocean for the old 
Porta de la Plata wreck, now sailed to Jamaica and dis- 
charged most of his crew, shipping a small number of 
such other seamen as were to be found. He felt that the 
ill success of his venture was due to the fact that he had 
no exact knowledge of the place where the Spanish ves- 
sel was lost. He therefore sailed to Hispaniola, where 
he found an old Spaniard who knew the precise locality 
of the sunken treasure. It was a reef of rocks a few 
ieagues to the north of Porta de la Plata. Phips imme- 
diately returned to Porta de la Plata and searched about 
the reef vainly for some time. Before he was ready to 
abandon hope, the condition of his ship, leaky and not 
half manned, obliged him to return to England. 

The English admiralty appreciated his persevering 
efforts and the skill with which he had managed the 
mutinous crew, but it would not again fit out a national 
vessel for his undertaking. It was generally considered 
a visionary scheme. The story of sunken treasure near 
the Porta de la Plata reef sounded like an old wives' tale. 
But Phips persisted. When the government failed him, 
he resorted to private individuals, and finally induced a 
few English gentlemen, one of whom was the Duke of 
Albemarle, to fit out a vessel and to give him the com- 
mand. This company obtained of the king a patent, 
giving it the exclusive right to all wrecks that might be 
discovered, for a certain number of years. 

This time there were proper implements for making 
submarine researches, at least so far as they had been 
invented in those days. Phips is said to have contrived 



ISO 

and made with his own hands some of the drags and 
hooks. 

When he reached Porta de la Plata, he built a stout 
rowboat, using the adz himself, with his crew. Seizing 
an opportunity when the sea was unusually calm, he sent 
eight or ten men, with some Indian divers, to examine 
the reef, while he remained on the ship. The water 
was deep about the reef's precipitous walls, and very 
clear, and the men hung over the boat's side, straining 
their eyes to catch a glimpse of some fragment of the old 
ship said to have lain there for more than half a century. 

But there was no wreck to be seen. They sent the 
Indian divers down at different places, all in vain. They 
were about to leave the reef, when one of the sailors saw 
a curious sea plant growing in a crevice of the rocks, and 
sent one of the divers to get it. The diver found in the 
same spot several old ship's guns. The other divers 
went down at once, and one brought up a great ingot 
of silver which proved to be worth £200 or iJ"300. 
Excited and overjoyed, they placed a buoy over the 
spot and returned to the ship. 

Phips, prepared by sad experience for disappoint- 
ment, was incredulous of their report until they showed 
him the ingot. "Thanks be to God! " he cried. "We 
are all made." 

Every man on board at once set to work groping and 
grappling for the sunken riches, and in a few days they 
had drawn up treasure of the value of ;^300,ooo. They 
had found, first, that part of the wrecked ship where the 
bullion was stored ; afterwards they found bags of coin 
which had been placed among the ship's ballast. 



The bags had become crusted so thickly with a cal- 
careous deposit that they had to be broken open with 
irons. When they were burst open, out poured the 
coins in a golden shower. There were precious stones, 
also, of much value. 

This great good fortune proved to be very ill fortune 
to a friend of Phips, who had come in a small vessel to 
his assistance. He was a sea captain of Providence, 
Rhode Island, named Adderley, and he had by chance 
been of some help to Phips in the former voyage. With 
his small crew he managed to load his vessel, in a few 
davs, with treasure to the value of several thousand 
pounds. This sudden, unexpected wealth overthrew 
the poor captain's reason, and he died insane a year or 
so afterwards. 

Before Phips had wholly explored the wreck, his pro- 
visions became exhausted. But the men were so en- 
chanted with their good fortune that they refused to 
leave the spot until their hunger made the gold seem 
valueless. On the last day of their search they brought 
up about twenty heavy lumps of silver. 

The Providence captain and his crew were obliged to 
take an oath of secrecy, and to promise that they would 
content themselves with what treasure they had already 
found. But what with the poor captain's insanity and 
the crew's imprudent boasting, the secret leaked out ; a 
Bermudan ship visited the wreck, and when Phips went 
back, every ounce of treasure had been carried away. 
Phips suffered great anxiety in getting his vast treasure 
to port ; but he finally landed it safe in England. 

When the profits were divided and the seamen had 



152 



their promised gratuity, there remained as Phips's share 
only about ;^i 6,000. King James expressed great sat- 
isfaction with the results of the enterprise, and in recog- 
nition of Phips's services he bestowed upon him the 
honor of knighthood. 

The Woolwich sheep-tender was now Sir William 
Phips. He was requested to remain in England, with 
the promise of an honorable and lucrative position in 
the public service ; but his heart was drawn to his na- 
tive New England. The Massachusetts colony, to which 
Maine now belonged, was distressed. Her charter had 
been taken away, and her governor. Sir Edmund An- 
dros, was imperious and grasping. 

Increase Mather, then president of Harvard College, 
undertook a voyage to England to plead the cause of 
the colony, and immediately found a champion for his 
cause in the person of the new knight. Sir William Phips. 
Sir William had reputation at court and was thought to 
l^v,.,./|ll enjoy the king's personal favor; and such 

advantage as was gained by Ma- 
ther's mission is un- 
doubtedly to be as- 
cribed to Phips's 
influence. But when 
Phips applied direct- 
ly for the restoration 
of its former privi- 
leges to tlie colony, 
King James replied : 
''Anything but that, 
Sir William!" 




I 



Unable to succeed in this great object, Sir William 
was determined to be of service to his country in some 
way. He seems to have been really patriotic, and, no 
doubt, also cherished a desire to enjoy his wealth and 
honors at home, where he had been advised to stick to 
sheep-tending and ship-carpentering. 

When a lucrative position under the commissioners of 
the navy was offered him, he applied for the office of 
sheriff of New England instead. He received this, and 
sailed in the summer of 1688 for New England. He 
found, when he arrived in Boston, that his patent as 
sheriff would not secure him the possession of the office, 
Governor Andros and his party being determinedly op- 
posed to him. But he built for his wife the fair brick 
house in Green Lane, which he had promised her five 
years before. The name of Green Lane was changed 
to ''Charter Street," in compliment to Sir William. His 
house stood at the corner of Charter and Salem streets. 
It was later used as an asylum for boys, but was demol- 
ished many years ago. 

His wife had her fair brick house, and the Duke of 
Albemarle sent her a present of a gold cup, whose 
value is variously stated at from one to four thousand 
dollars. We hear of her again in the dreadful witch- 
craft times, when Sir William, after fighting bravely 
through the Indian wars, had come to be captain 
general and governor in chief of the province of 
Massachusetts Bay, in New England. Then it was in- 
timated that the governor's good lady was a witch ; for 
when she was solicited for a favor in behalf of a woman 
committed on accusation of witchcraft, and in prison for 



154 

trial at the next assizes, she granted and signed a warrant 
for the woman's discharge. 

When Sir Wilham became governor of Massachusetts, 
his good fortune began to wane. He was continually 
annoyed by the defects of his early education, although 
his knowledge of human nature and his confidence in 
his own powers concealed many imperfections. It is 
said that his signature looked always like the awkward, 
unformed hand of a child. 

He was unpopular, and knowing the disesteem in 
which he was held, he became peevish and irascible. On 
more than one occasion he used his cane upon officers 
who failed to agree with him. He often expressed a 
wish to "go back to his broadax again." Complaints 
against him were preferred to the king, who refused to 
condemn him without a hearing, but ordered him to 
come to England to defend himself. 

His friend Cotton Mather declares that Sir William 
was assured that he should be restored to his governor- 
ship. B.ut the disaffection against him was so great that 
this is improbable. It is certain that he remained in 
England, and his scheming mind was soon filled with 
new enterprises. 

One was a plan to supply the English navy with tim- 
ber from the great primeval forests of Maine. The 
undertaking is said to have been feasible, and Phips was 
thoroughly well fitted to carry it out. The other plan 
was to go on another search for shipwrecked treasure, 
and, indeed, the desire for this exciting sort of adven- 
ture had never wholly left his eager mind. 

A ship with the Spanish governor Bobadilla on board 



155 

had been wrecked somewhere near the West Indies. 
Phips proposed to have the Duke of Albemarle's patent 
renewed to himself, and to try his fortune again. But 
in the midwinter of 1695 ^^^ took a cold which resulted 
in a fever, and caused his death in the forty-fifth year 
of his age. He was buried in the Church of St. Mary 
Woolnoth. 



XIII. MAJOR WALDRON AND THE INDIANS. 

THE province of Maine had now (1678) been pur- 
chased by Massachusetts, and, as the struggHng 
settlers were still distressed by hostile Indians, the Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts sent an army of a hundred 
and thirty English and forty friendly Indians to their 
relief. They came from Natick, and when they reached 
Dover they were incorporated with Major Waldron's 
troops. Major Waldron was a famous Indian-fighter, 
and had the reputation of being " one of the most per- 
fidious and unscrupulous cheats in his treatment of the 
Indians." When they paid him what was due, he would 
fail to cross out their accounts, and exact payment 
again and again. In buying beaver skins by weight, he 
insulted and exasperated the Indians by insisting that 
his fist weighed just one pound. 

When their opportunity for revenge came, it was not 
likely that the savages would forget. But, in justice to 
the major, it must be said that in the first infamous 
treachery shown to the Indians in this campaign he was 
not the leader. 

He had sent a messenger to four hundred Indian 

warriors, inviting them to come to Dover to confer, in 

a friendly manner, upon a possible treaty of peace, 

pledging his honor for their safety. 

156 



157 

They came readily. Their own tribes were beginning 
to dwindle ; the Massachusetts colony, growing strong, 
would send more and more soldiers to the aid of the 
Maine settlers. And they had always a lurking fear 
that the white man, with his many inventions, was the 
favorite child of the Great Spirit, and that, in spite of 
Squando and Simon and the other Indian seers, it was 
they, instead of the English, who were doomed to de- 
struction. 

Peace was what the wiser among them really desired. 
But the burning and slaughtering of the Indians, and 
their merciless torturing of their captives, had been very 
recent, and were very fresh in the minds of the English, 
and they would have fallen upon them with furious 
slaughter if Major Waldron had not restrained them. 
He had pledged his sacred word that they should come 
and go in safety. The men made a dastardly plan, and 
although Major Waldron held out against it for a while, 
it is to be feared that his natural inclinations were with 
them from the first. Certain it is that he finally yielded, 
and one of the most infamous acts of treachery against 
the Indians of which the white settlers were ever guilty 
was perpetrated at this Dover conference. The Indians 
were invited by the English to engage with them in a 
sham battle. At a given signal there was to be a grand 
discharge of all the guns. The Indians guilelessly dis- 
charged their guns, while the English soldiers followed 
their secret instructions to load their muskets with balls 
and not to fire. Then they fell upon the helpless In- 
dians, disarmed them all, and took them prisoners. 

Some of the Indians who were known to have been 



•58 



always friendly to the whites were set at liberty ; but two 
hundred of the too confiding' warriors were sent as 

prisoners to Boston. There all 
those convicted of taking 
life were executed, and 
the others were sent to 
the West Indies or other 
foreign countries and 
sold as slaves. Many 
colonists approved of 
this deed, and the 
government also sus- 



'( tained and abetted 




It. 



.^•fe^, The day after their 

'A sham-battle exploit, 
V 3- ^ the troops under Ma- 
'^'' ^'> jor Waldron em- 
barked in a vessel for 
Falmouth, and at 
Casco, whence the 
inhabitants had all 
been driven by the Indians, they established a garrison. 
Some of the settlers were emboldened by this protec- 
tion to return to their homes, but the Indian attacks 
and depredations still continued. 

Seven men who ventured upon Munjoys Island, to 
kill some sheep that had been left there, were slain 
by the Indians, although they were armed and defended 
themselves desperately. 

In October the English returned to the Piscataqua, 



159 

leaving about sixty men in the garrison. They had 
been gone but two days when a company of a hundred 
and twenty Indians, under the leadership of Mugg, a 
famous chief, made a furious attack upon the garrison. 

Mugg had been very friendly with the EngHsh and 
had lived some time among them. " He was the prime 
minister of the Penobscot sachem, an active and a 
shrewd leader, but who, by his intimacy with the Eng- 
lish families, had worn oflf some of the ferocities of the 
savage character." 

Mugg called upon the inmates of the garrison to sur- 
render, promising that they should be allowed to leave 
the place unharmed, with all their goods. Captain 
Henry Jocelyn, who commanded the fortress, unhesi- 
tatingly left it to confer with Mugg, placing himself 
completely in the power of the Indians. His confidence 
in Mugg was not misplaced, for no treachery whatever 
was practiced by the Indians. But a very curious thing 
happened. 

He returned unharmed to the fort, but only to find, 
to his great astonishment, that all the inmates, except 
those of his own household, had availed themselves of 
the Indians' permission to depart with their goods. 
They had hastily gathered together their household 
effects and taken to the boats, and were already at a 
good distance from shore. 

Jocelyn, who had not accepted the offered terms, 
finding himself thus abandoned and helpless, had no 
alternative but surrender. 

Mugg seems always to have dealt fairly in trade and 
in war, but not always to have been able to control his 



i6o 

wily and treacherous allies. A naval expedition sent 
to Richmans Island for the rescue of some settlers who 
had taken refuge there, and for the removal of their 
property, was attacked by an Indian force that greatly 
outnumbered it. A part of the sailors were on board 
ship, and others on shore. The Indians immediately 
shot those on shore, or took them prisoners, and those 
on the vessel's deck were assailed by so furious a fire 
that they were forced to go below. Then the Indians 
cut the cables, and a strong wind blew the vessel ashore. 

The Indians shouted a threat to set the vessel on fire 
and burn the sailors to death unless they surrendered. 
Captain Fryer, the commander of the expedition, had 
been seriously wounded, and lay bleeding and helpless 
in the cabin. There were eleven in the vessel's hold, 
who agreed to surrender, upon condition that they should 
be allowed to ransom themselves within a given time 
by the payment of a certain amount of goods. 

The Indians accepted the terms, and released two 
of the prisoners, that they might obtain the ransom. 
They returned with the goods before the appointed time, 
but the Indians with whom they had made the terms 
had gone away. Other Indians had the remaining 
prisoners in charge, and they killed one of those who 
had returned with the ransom, took the goods, and re- 
fused to release the prisoners. 

The chieftain Mugg was very angry with the treach- 
erous Indians. He was anxious for war to cease, and 
ventured to Piscataqua as an emissary of peace from 
Madockawando, his superior sagamore. 

Mugg carried with him to Piscataqua Captain Fryer, 



lOI 

who was dying of his wounds, and restored him to his 
friends. He promised that the other prisoners should 
at once be set at hberty. Mugg was immediately given 
a passage to Boston, where, in behalf of Madockawando 
and another great chief, Cheberrind, he concluded a 
treaty. The treaty did not please all the Indians, which 
was not strange, for in it the English seem to have 
claimed everything and granted nothing. 

It was agreed that all hostilities should cease ; that 
the English should receive full satisfaction for all dam- 
ages they had suffered; that all prisoners and all ves- 
sels and goods which had been seized by the Indians 
should be restored ; that the Indians should purchase 
ammunition only of agents appointed by the govern- 
ment ; and that certain Indians accused of crime should 
be surrendered for trial and punishment. In concluding 
the treaty, Mugg said: " In attestation of my sincerity 
and honor, I place myself a hostage in your hands till 
the captives, vessels, and goods are restored ; and I lift 
my hand to heaven in witness of my honest heart in 
this treaty." Madockawando ratified this treaty, and 
fifty or sixty captives were restored to their homes. 

But the Canibas tribe, on the east bank of the Ken- 
nebec, remained hostile, scorned the treaty, and refused 
to release their captives. They were a powerful tribe, 
and were regarded by the English as very shrewd and 
sagacious. The site of their ancient village, opposite 
the mouth of Sandv River, is still shown. It is a fertile 
intervale, beautiful for situation. The ruins of their 
Roman Catholic chapel long remained, and its bell, 
weighing sixty-four pounds, was found in the ruins, and 

SrO. OF MAl.XK II 



l62 






presented to Bowdoin College. To the Canibas tribe 
went Mugg, to try to persuade them to accept the treaty 
and release their captives. But he was not altogether 
successful. 

A pleasant story is told of one of Mugg's good deeds 
just before he sailed on his mission to the Canibas. A 
young man named Cobbet, the son of a clergyman of 
Ipswich, was among the captives found at Penobscot. 
He had been disabled by a musket wound, and, in that 
condition, delivered over to one of the most brutal and 
ferocious of the savages. Mugg, who had friendly re- 
lations with many of the English, had met the young 
man before, and, instantly recognizing him in the keep- 
ing of his cruel master, called him by name. 

** I have just seen your father in Boston," he said, 
" and I promised him that his son should be restored to 
him. You must be released, according to the treaty." 
Madockawando and an English captain were stand- 
ing by. The old chief knew that Cobbet's fiendish 

master would not allow 
him to go alive without 
a ransom, and he 
quickly turned to 
the English captain, 
and begged him to 
give, as a ransom, a 
gayly ornamented 



y^-i 








military coat which 
he had at hand. The captain delivered up the coat 
forthwith to the grimly satisfied savage, and young 
Cobbet was sent in safety to his home. 



i63 

An expedition consisting of two vessels, with ninety 
Englishmen and sixty friendly Natick Indians on board, 
was sent by the General Court to Casco and the Ken- 
nebec, to subdue the Indians in those parts, and to de- 
liver the English captives detained in their hands. One 
vessel was commanded by Major Waldron, and the other 
by Major Frost. They made their first landing at Mare 
Point, in Brunswick. 

The Indians who met them as they stepped on shore 
were led by Squando and Simon the Yankee-killer. 
Simon denied all accusations of intended hostilities, and 
declared that the Indians desired only peace, and had 
sent Mugg to the English for that purpose. The next 
day an unfortunate occurrence occasioned fresh diffi- 
culties. A large fleet of canoes was discovered rapidly 
drawing near to the vessels, and at the same time the 
log house of a settler was seen to be in flames. 

The English naturally supposed that the Indians had 
begun, in their usual way, to burn, pillage, and butcher. 
A company of armed men was immediately landed, and 
commenced a fire upon the Indians. The Indians re- 
taliated. When at length a flag of truce was raised, 
the sagamores explained that the house took fire acci- 
dentally. They also declared that they had meant to 
return the captives, according to the treaty, but the 
weather had been so cold and the snow so deep that 
they had been unable to do so. The English, who could 
not be said to have covered themselves with glory in 
this enterprise, again set sail and crossed the wintry 
seas to the western shore of the Kennebec, opposite 
Arrowsic Island, where they landed. 



164 

There half the men were set to work building a gar 
rison. With the remainder of his men, in the two ves- 
sels, Major Waldron sailed to Pemaquid, where it had 
been arranged that a council should take place. He 
met there several sachems with Indians from various 
tribes. 

Major Waldron called upon these Indians to help the 
Ensflish to subdue the Indians who still remained hos- 
tile and refused to release their prisoners. One of the 
old sagamores replied : *' Only a few of our young men, 
whom we cannot restrain, wish to enter upon the war- 
path. All the captives with us were intrusted to our 
keeping by the Canibas tribe. For the support of each 
one there are due to us twelve bearskins and some good 
liquor. 

The liquor was promptly forthcoming, and ransom 
was offered, but as yet only three captives were 
released. 

As the council met again in the afternoon, Major Wal- 
dron, who had previously suspected treachery, discovered 
some weapons where the Indians had concealed them. 
He seized a weapon and brandished it furiously, crying 
out that they were perfidious wretches, who had meant 
to rob and then kill them. This may or may not have 
been true ; the savages were certainly often guilty of 
treachery. At all events, a wild panic followed. The 
Indians, unarmed, fled in dismay, and were pursued by 
armed men from the vessels, who mercilesslv shot them 
down. 

Some of the Indians threw themselves into a canoe 
and pushed off in it. The canoe was upset, and five 



i65 

were drowned, while the rest were captured in trying 
to escape. Two chiefs and five other Indians were 
shot dead. Megunnaway, an old chief, was shot, after 
being dragged on board one of the vessels by Major 
Frost and one of his men. 

Majors Waldron and Frost returned to Arrowsic, 
carrying with them much plunder in the shape of goods 
and provisions taken from the Indians. One author- 
ity says, somewhat ambiguously, that the provisions 
** amounted to a thousand pounds of beef." 

At Arrowsic they shot Indians and took an Indian 
woman prisoner, sending her up to the Canibas, the 
stubborn keepers of captives, to demand an exchange. 

Leaving forty men in charge of their garrison on the 
mainland, they returned to Boston, boasting that they 
had not lost a single one of their number. But the dis- 
astrous result of their expedition had been to exasperate 
the Indians and inflame them to greater violence. 

This exasperation of the Maine Indians was increased 
when their ancient traditional enemies, the Mohawks, 
were hired by the'English to help make war upon them. 
They immediately planned to destroy all the important 
points in Maine that they had not already laid waste. 

They adopted their old method of shooting down 
from ambush every white person within range. They 
shot down and instantly killed, in this way, nine visitors 
to the Arrowsic garrison. The holders of the fort were 
terror-stricken, and abandoned the place, distributing 
themselves about at stronger garrisons. 

At York and Wells the savages shot down men at 
work in the fields and standing in their cabin doors. 



1 66 

Women and children dared not venture out of their 
houses, lest they should be carried away captive. The 
men whom they took prisoners they put to death with 
horrible tortures. The garrison at Black Point was a 
strong one. For three days and nights the force under 
Lieutenant Tappan fought bravely in its defense. The 
great chieftain Mugg was here instantly killed. This 
was a severe blow to the Indians, who were always seri- 
ously affected by the death of their chiefs ; and Mugg 
was one of those for whom they cherished a supersti- 
tious reverence. It was perhaps in reprisal for the loss 
that they renewed their fiendish tortures upon their cap- 
tives. After the death of Mugg the Indians abandoned 
their attack on the Black Point garrison. But the end 
was not yet ; and there was soon to take place there 
one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the long 
warfare. Two months afterwards the Black Point gar- 
rison was reenforced. A company consisting of ninety 
white men and two hundred friendly Natick Indians 
was sent there by the General Court. 

The Indians had prepared an ambuscade, and the 
white men allowed themselves to be entrapped. Cap- 
tain Benjamin Swett and Lieutenant Richardson, the 
officers in command, were brave but reckless men. The 
Indians sent out a decoy which drew the ninety white 
men from the fort; then they feigned a retreat, and the 
English guilelessly pursued them until they were hedged 
in by a swamp and a thicket, both filled with Indian 
warriors. The hidden foe made a frightful onslaught. 
Lieutenant Richardson was instantly killed ; and Cap- 
tain Swett, wounded and fighting still, until exhausted 



i67 

by loss of blood, was cut to pieces by an Indian's toma- 
hawk. Sixty of the men were killed. 

On the [2th of August, 1678, the English commis- 
sioners met Squando and the sagamores of the Kenne- 
bec and the Androscoggin tribes, and sorne simple arti- 
cles of peace were drawn up and agreed upon. 

The hostilities were to cease. All captives on each 
side were to be surrendered without ransom. Every 
English family was to pay one peck of corn annually 
as a quitrent for the land it had gained from the In- 
dians ; and Major Phillips of Saco, who had very exten- 
sive possessions, was to pay one bushel each year. 

Peace was heartily welcome, for Maine's losses and 
suffering in the war had been very great. Two hundred 
and sixty had been killed or carried into captivity, and 
the wounded were unnumbered. A hundred and fifty 
captives were, after months of suffering, restored to 
their friends. 

So King Philip's War was over, in Maine as well as 
in Massachusetts, and for ten years the Maine settlers 
enjoyed comparative peace and security. But in 1688 
difficulties between the French and the English aroused 
the Indians, who allied themselves with the French, to 
fresh hostilities. And they had not forgotten their 
old grudge against Major Waldron. The French and 
Indians had captured the strong fortress at Pemaquid, 
and then seized Falmouth and Newcastle. At Saco 
they were repulsed, but they surprised the settlement 
at Dover, and killed the inhabitants ruthlessly. 

A great company of them attacked Waldron's house, 
frantic in their desire for revenge upon their old enemy. 



i68 



Waldron was now eighty years old, but still strong and 
of undaunted courage. With his sword he defended 
himself, and drove the Indians from room to room until, 

at last, one struck 
him down, from 
behind, with his 
hatchet. Then 

they seized him, 
and dragged him 
into the living 
room, setting him 
upon a table in 
his own armchair. 
While he sat there, 
they ordered a 
supper prepared 
for them, and ate 
it, while they 
jeered at him. When 
they had finished, they 
took off his clothes, and sub- 
mitted him to dreadful torture. 
They gashed his breast with knives, 
and said mockingly, "So I cross out my account! " 
They cut off joints of his fingers, saying, " Now will 
your fist weigh a pound? " 

When they had amused themselves sufficiently in this 
way, they allowed him to fall upon his own sword, and 
thus end his torments. It was said that Major Waldron 
had, in his time, seized, and sent as slaves to Bermuda, 
a hundred Indians. 




XIV. LOVEWELL'S WAR. 

THE story of Maine from 1675 to 1725 was only the 
old one of constant war with the Indians. King 
William's War, Queen Anne's, the French and Indian, 
were only continuations of the dreadful bloody struggle. 
And yet the undaunted settlers hailed every interval of 
peace, like that which followed the treaty of Utrecht, in 
I 7 13, and set to work with renewed courage to build up 
the province. It was hoped that the Indians had been 
subdued when, in one terrible battle, in which the de- 
voted Jesuit missionary was killed, the whole powerful 
tribe of Norridgewocks was blotted out. 

The Indians had, indeed, been driven from their 
fastnesses, but many desperate bands lurked about 
the frontiers, ready for any opportunity of murder or 
pillage. 

A regiment of several hundred men was raised to 
range the country in the region which was the favorite 
hunting and fishing ground of the savages. But the 
wily Indians, ever on the watch, were seldom caught. 
They skulked in the forests as warily as the wild beasts, 
and were almost as swift of foot as the deer. Massa- 
chusetts, in which Maine was then included, had gone 
to such desperate and, it must seem to us, brutal 
lengths in her war upon the savages as to offer ** to 

169 



I/O 

all volunteers who, without pay or rations, would em- 
bark, at their own expense, in the search for scalps, a 
bounty of £ioo for each one taken." A bounty of 
;^I5 was offered for the scalp of every Indian boy of the 
age of twelve years. 

This was in 1725, almost a hundred years after the 
settlement of Boston. In December of that year, Cap- 
tain John Lovewell, who had, before that time, been a 
doughty Indian-fighter, went on an expedition, with 
thirty men, to Lake Winnepesaukee, in New Hampshire. 
They killed and scalped one Indian, and captured an 
Indian boy ; and for these deeds they received, in 
Boston, the bounty promised by law. 

Later in the winter, Captain Lovewell, this time with 
forty men, came upon some Indian wigwams on the 
shore of a small lake, since called Lovewells Pond, near 
Salmon Falls. There were ten Indians there, just re- 
turned from the hunt, and soundly sleeping around their 
camp fires. 

The English stole upon their sleeping victims silently, 
and fired simultaneously upon them, instantly killing 
nine and wounding the tenth. When the wounded 
Indian attempted to escape, a powerful dog, which the 
Englishmen had brought with them, pursued and held 
him until he was dispatched with the settlers' hatchets. 
Encouraged, apparently, by his scalps and his 
^1,000, Lovewell set out again, in the middle of April, 
in quest of more. He took with him forty-six volun- 
teers, thoroughly armed ; but it is related that, from the 
severity of the march and the hardships of the way, 
three of the company gave out and returned home. A 



171 

chaplain accompanied the party. He was a young theo- 
logical student, named Jonathan Frye, a recent gradu- 
ate of Harvard College. 

On the side of Great Ossipee Pond, in New Hamp- 
shire, about ten miles beyond the western boundary of 
Maine, they built a small fort, which was already needed 
as a hospital, — eight of the men being too ill to go any 
farther, — and also as a place of retreat if they should 
be obliged to flee from the enemy. 

The sick men were left here, with a surgeon and a 
guard of three men, and the company again took up the 
march. At Fryeburg, a distance of twenty-two miles 
from their fort, they encamped for the night. They 
were on the shore of Lovewells Pond, and only about 
two miles from them was the Indian village of Peg- 
wacket. 

In the morning, while engaged in their devotions, — 
for it was their invariable custom to have morning 
prayers, — they were interrupted by the report of a 
gun. Moving cautiously to the water's edge, they saw, 
across the pond, a mile away, an Indian hunter, who 
had fired at some game. He was valuable game indeed 
to them ; fair game, too : by the law of the land his 
scalp was worth five hundred dollars. 

It is not pleasant to relate, but, just from their pray- 
ers, the party set out to catch him. In a little pine 
grove, free from underbrush, they threw off their packs, 
and left tliem in a heap ; the tall pines were a landmark, 
and they could easily find them again. 

Keeping near to the shore of the pond, yet skulking, 
in savage fashion, behind the trees, they came within 



IJ2 

shooting distance of the Indian. He was quite unaware 
of their approach, and was sauntering along, looking for 
birds, of which he had a few, already shot, in his hand. 

The eager Englishmen fired upon him too hurriedly, 
and every gun missed its aim. He sprang behind a tree 
and took a survey of the enemy. Then he took de- 
liberate aim and fired at the leader, Captain Lovewell, 
inflicting a dangerous, but not a mortal, wound. Ensign 
Wyman fired almost simultaneously, and the Indian 
fell dead. 

They scalped him, and supporting their wounded 
leader as well as they could, they returned to the little 
clearing where they had left their packs. 

Meanwhile a band of Indian warriors, led by the 
great chiefs Paugus and Wahwa, returning from an ex- 
pedition down the Saco River, came, by chance, upon 
the little pine grove and the packs. It w^as easy to see 
that the owners meant to return for them. It was also 
easy to tell the number of their owners by counting the 
packs. It was not difficult for the keen eyes of the sav- 
ages to discover the path upon which the Englishmen 
had gone, and by which they would probably return. 

Around the little clearing they ranged themselves in 
ambush, and awaited their victims. The Englishmen 
were marching easily along, probably well satisfied with 
their morning expedition, when the Indians rushed upon 
them from their ambush, with their terrible war whoops. 
These Indians, having often visited the western settle- 
ments of Maine, and been on friendly terms with Cap- 
tain Eovewell and his men, were loath to kill their 
former friends, and preferred to take them captive. 






They might have shot every man from ambush, but, in- 
stead, they came out and presented their guns. Then 
the English, aroused to renewed courage, poured forth 
a deadly fire from their guns, and killed two or three 
Indians. 

Instantlv the Indians, who outnumbered their ene- 
mies two to one, sprang back into the natural ambus- 
cade, and, completely surrounding the English, poured 
upon them a slaughtering volley. Nine men, including 
Captain Lovewell, fell dead, and two more were severely 
wounded. 

The survivors, including the two badly wounded men, 
made their way to the pond, only a few rods awa}-. 
Here there was a bank five feet high, and a sandy beach, 
and no Indian ambush was possible. The bank was a 
rampart to protect them from the Indians' bullets, and 
from behind it, for eight hours, they fought with the 
courage of despair. 

They knew that they could not long hold out, but, 
with their small number, flight was hopeless. They had 
no provisions, and their packs, with their extra supply 
of ammunition, had been seized by the Indians. Their 
fate seemed certain, yet they fought on ; and in a brief 
cessation of hostilities, while the Indians seemed to be 
holding a council. Ensign Wyman stole stealthily into 
the forest and shot and killed one of the chiefs. 

Even after that, one of the chiefs came within hailing 
distance of the rampart, and shouted: ** Will }ou have 
quarter? " The English probably understood their foes 
well enouo-h to know that, after thev had killed so 
many of theni, especially after Ensign Wyman's shoot- 



174 



ing of the chief, there would be no quarter, but only 
torture to the death for them. So they answered des- 
perately : " We will have no quarter but at the muzzles 
of our guns." 

It was a strange contest, for, as it continued, both 
sides concealed as far as possible from each other, the 
deadly enemies often talked together, calling each other 
by name, as if their relations were the most friendly. 

John Chamberlain stepped down to the water to wash 
his gun, which had become too foul to use, at the same 
moment tliat Paugus, the Pegwacket chief, jumped over 

the bank for the same 
purpose. Both men 
were of f^reat stature 
and of heroic cour- 
age, and both leaders 
in the wars. Paugus 
could speak English, 
and the two men were 
well acquainted, and 
had been on friendly 
terms. Paugus, in- 
stantly loading his 
'^^^^'k"^ gun, said quietly to 
his former friend : " I 
shall now very quick kill you! " "Perhaps not," re- 
turned Chamberlain, whose gun, in charging, primed 
itself. With his words came a flash, a report, and the 
Indian chief fell dead. 

The English were helpless and at the mercy of the 
savages, for their ammunition was neariy exhausted. 




175 

And yet, at nightfall, the Indians withdrew. It is not 
improbable that the Indians had expended all their 
ammunition, of which they could obtain supplies only 
by tedious journeys through the forests to Canada. 
Forty of the Indians were killed outright, and eighteen 
mortally wounded. 

Of the English there were twenty-two survivors, and 
of these two were mortally wounded and were left to 
die alone. They could not be moved ; and to stay with 
them meant almost inevitably death, by horrible torture, 
at the hands of the Indians. Eight others were badly 
wounded, and all were enfeebled and half famished. 
They w^ere forced to leave the dead unburied and take 
up their painful march, in the midnight darkness, desti- 
tute of tents, of food, of any covering for the injured, or 
any means of dressing their wounds. 

Chaplain Frye, although mortally wounded, toiled 
along for a mile or more, and then gave up the struggle 
for life. " I cannot take another step," he said. " Here 
I must die. Should you ever, through God's help, reach 
your homes, tell my father that I expect in a few hours 
to be in eternity, but that I do not fear to die." 

Struggling on through the forest, the remnant of 
Lovevvell's men divided themselves into three companies 
in an effort to conceal their trail from the Indians, whose 
war whoops they constantly expected to hear. It was 
supposed that the savages had gone to Pegwacket for a 
fresh supply of ammunition. If this was so, they prob- 
ably failed to find it, for they gave up the pursuit, and 
sixteen of Lovewell's men reached the fort, after a 
journey of three or four days through the woods. 



176 

All through the sufferings of the journey the pros- 
pect of the security and comforts of the fort had sus- 
tained them ; but when they reached it, to their keenest 
disappointment they found it abandoned. It was learned 
afterwards that the feeble holders of the garrison had 
fled for their lives, when one of Lovevvell's men, escap- 
ing when the savages first rushed upon tliem in the 
grove, had appeared at the fort with the frightful news. 

To the great relief of the fugitives, some provisions 
were found in the garrison, which the men in their hasty 
flight had left behind them. When they had eaten and 
rested as well as they could, expecting every moment 
to hear the yells of the coming savages, they resumed 
their painful march, and fourteen of them finally 
reached their homes. 

This Peewacket battle is said to have had such an 
effect upon the Sokokis tribe that they were never 
again the valiant warriors they had been before. They 
wandered away from their " pleasant and ancient dwell- 
ing places," and " the star of the tribe, pale and declin- 
ing, gradually settled in darkness." 

A poet of those days celebrated " Lovewell's Vic- 
tory," as it was called, in a ballad whose quamt sim- 
plicity shows curiously the primitive old times, when it 
did not provoke a smile. We give a few of the many 
verses : 

THE BALLAD OF LOVEWELL'S VICTORY. 

Anon there eighty Indians rose, 

Who'd hid themselves in ambush dread; 

Their knives they shook, their guns they aimed, 
The famous Paugus at their head. 



177 

Good heavens! they dance the powwow dance. 

What horrid yells the forest fill! 
The grim be;ir crouches in his den, 

The eagle seeks the distant hill. 

"^ What means this dance, this powwow dance?" 
Stern Wyman said. With wondrous art 

He crept full near, his rifle aimed, 

And shot the leader through the heart. 

John Lovewell, captain of the band, 

His sword he waved that glittered bright; 

For the last time he cheered his men 
And led them onward to the fight. 

"Fight on, fight on ! " brave Lovewell snid ; 

'' Fight on while Heaven shall give you breath ! " 
An Indian ball then pierced him through. 

And Lovewell closed his eyes in death. 

'Twas Paugus led the Pequ'att tribe ; 

As runs the fox would Paugus run, 
As howls the wild wolf would he howl, 

A large bearskin had Paugus on. 

Ah ! many a wife shall rend her hair. 

And many a child cry, " Woe is me," 
When messengers the news shall bear 

Of Lovewell's dear-bought victory. 

Lovewell was dead, and his little company killed or 
scattered ; but the war that they had inaugurated con- 
tinued for three years, until two hundred of the Maine 
settlers had been killed or carried into captivity, and the 
native tribes had dwindled away and lost all their brav- 
est warriors. Oldtown, the old island of Lett, far up the 

STO. OF MAINE 12 



178 

Penobscot, where the Indians had their strongest fort 
and a pleasant Httle vihage dear to their hearts, had 
been, in 1723, captured by the Enghsh and wholly de- 
stroyed. 

Colonel Thomas Westbrook, who commanded the 
expedition against the Indian stronghold, made the 
following official report of his proceedings. He first 
describes the prosperous settlement and the fine build- 
ings which the French and Indians had erected, and 
continues: "We set fire to them all, and by sunrise 
the next morning they were all in ashes. We then re- 
turned to our nearest guard, thence to our tents. On 
our arrival at our transports, we concluded we must 
have ascended the river about thirty-two miles." 

The Indians wandered back to their once beautiful 
island and their desolated homes, but they had no 
heart to try to rebuild. The grasp of the powerful 
English was upon them, and the}^ understood, at last, 
that no Indians could withstand it. They were half 
famished, for they could scarcely obtain ammunition for 
hunting ; and if they planted corn, even in remotest re- 
gions, the determined English would find their trails 
through the forest, and trample their harvests in the 
dust. 

A bitter belief in the surx'ival of the fittest was enter- 
ing the Indian's always fatalistic mind. Squando had 
foretold the destruction of the white man, but it had 
become easy to see, now, that he was the favored child 
of the Great Spirit. It was the Indian who was doomed. 

Down iiie western banks of the river the despoiled 
savages wandered from their beautiful Lett. They must 



179 

settle upon the shore, for they were forced to subsist 
upon fish; yet there the Enghsh could easily swoop 
down upon them with their ships and the great whale- 
boats which they were constantly fitting out. 

At Bangor, then the primitive forest, they rebuilt 
their village. It was a delightful place. A high bank 
sloped gently to the Penobscot, and the Kenduskeag 
slipped peacefully down through the woods to the 
greater river. There were probably French families 
with them, as there had been at Lett, for some of the 
houses had cellars and chimneys, which at that time no 
Indian dwelling had ever had. 

The Indians had always affiliated much more readily 
with the French than with the English, and in this case 
there was the bond of a common religious faith ; for the 
Lett Indians were all Roman Catholic. In fact, it was 
probably their natural adaptation to the Roman Catho- 
lic faith that had first drawn them to the French. 

''The French are our friends," they said. "They 
advocate our rights, and become, as it were, one with us. 
They sell us whatever we want, and never take away 
our lands. They send the kind missionaries to teach us 
how to worship the Great Spirit ; and, like brothers, they 
give us good advice when we are in trouble. When we 
trade with them w^e have good articles, full weight, and 
free measure. They leave us our goodly rivers where 
we catch fine salmon, and leave us unmolested to hunt 
the bear, the moose, and the beaver where our fathers 
have hunted them. We love our own country, where 
our fathers were buried, and where we and our children 
were born. We have our rights, as well as the English ; 



i8o 

we also know, as well as they, what is just and what is 
unjust." 

Besides the French houses in the new village on the 
Penobscot, there were about fifty of the Indian huts 
which had replaced their ancient wigwams, to the entire 
loss of the picturesque, and a doubtful gain of the com- 
fortable. They built a church also, the French and 
Indians together, of which we hear only that it was 
*' commodious," and that the cross on its roof made it 
a sightly object from the river. Better, perhaps, for the 
Indians if it had been less ** sightly," for their village 
was soon discovered by their enemies. At the Rich- 
mond garrison, a hundred miles to the south, the 
settlers heard of this new village of the Indians, and 
Captain Heath, the commander of the garrison, with a 
company of men, marched across the country from the 
Kennebec to destroy it. 

It made no dilTerence to the valiant Captain Heath 
that the thoroughly subdued and weakened Indians had 
made proposals for a peace conference. The Indians 
received warning, in some way, of the approach of the 
enemy, and the whole population deserted the village 
and fled to the forest. The attacking party found not 
an Indian, but they burned every dwelling and the 
church, and laid waste the newly planted cornfields. 

The Indians made their way back to Lett, and rebuilt 
their homes on the island that had belonged to their 
fathers, — one of the few ancient Indian settlements in 
America that remain in possession of the Indians to this 
day. In spite of all Indian overtures for peace, the war 
continued. The English seem to have adopted, almost 



i8i 

by common consent, a policy of extermination, and an 
Indian was as much lawful game as a wild beast. Even 
when a few chiefs with a flag of truce approached Fort 
St. George, at Thomaston, to sue for peace, they were 
fired upon by a detachment from the fort, and one of 
them was killed. 

Young Castine, of whom we have heard before, always 
a friend of peace, and of great influence in maintaining 
friendly relations between the Indians and the English, 
was fired upon from an English sloop, while fishing in 
a small sailboat of: Naskeag Point (now Sedgwick). He 
had with him in his boat his young son, the grandson 
of an Indian chief, and Samuel Trask, a Salem boy, taken 
captive by the Indians, whom he had kindly ransomed. 

They made for the land and took shelter there, when 
the captain of the sloop raised the white flag, and called 
to Castine that the shooting had been a mistake. 

Incapable of suspecting such base treachery as this 
proved to be, Castine, with the two boys, immediately 
rowed out to the ship. As soon as they stepped on 
board, young Trask was seized, and the captain said to 
Castine: "Your bark and all it contains are a lawful 
prize. You yourself are justly my prisoner. You may 
think yourself well off to escape without further moles- 
tation." One of the crew accompanied Castine and 
his son to the shore, and there attempted to kidnap the 
boy. Finding it impossible to rescue the boy otherwise, 
Castine shot the rascal dead, and with his son fled to the 
woods. 

In spite of outrages like this, the Indians continued 
to sue for peace. 



l82 

Two commissioners from Boston were met at Fort St. 
George by thirteen Indian chiefs, who declared that 
they came for peace, and wished to recall all their 
young men from the war. Councils were appointed, 
and one of them, at Boston, in which four great saga- 
mores from the Eastern tribes participated, lasted for 
more than a month. 

The great grievance of the Indians was that their 
hunting grounds, the lands which had belonged to their 
fathers before them, had been seized. They had also 
been defrauded of them by those who had given fire 
water to the Indians, and when their wits were gone had 
made them sign any contracts they chose. The deadly 
fire water frenzied the Indians and made them utterly 
reckless. Loron, one of the chiefs, wrote to Governor 
Dummer : " Do not let the trading houses deal in rum. 
It wastes the health of our young men. It makes them 
behave badly, both to your people and to their own 
brethren. This is the opinion of all our chief men. I 
salute you, great governor, and am your good friend." 

The Indians had no way to enforce their claims to 
their lands, and were obliged to submit to any terms of 
peace that the English chose to make. The Dummer 
treaty was an unconditional surrender on the part of the 
Indians. It was signed on the 1 5th of December, 1725, 
and continued in force for many years. By its terms 
the government of Massachusetts was authorized to 
arrange all intercourse between the English and the 
Indians. If any Indians refused to ratify the treaty, the 
chiefs in council pledged their tribes to join the English 
and force the off"enders to submit. 



1 83 

A fuller council was held at Falmouth, July 30, 1726. 
Forty chiefs were there, representing nearly all the 
Maine, Canada, and Nova Scotia tribes. They were 
accompanied by a large number of Indians of their 










'm. 



% i 






various tribes. The lieutenant governors of Massachu- 
setts and New Hampshire, representing the English, were 
attended by a brilliant retinue of soldiers. The Indians 
carried themselves with great dignity, and the scene is 
said to have been very impressive. Wenemonet, a great 
sagamore, and twenty-six of his tribe signed the treaty. 
At the close of the conference, a banquet was given 
in the great tent erected for the council on Munjoys 
Hill. The Indians are said to have immediately flocked 
to the settlements when peace was established, as happy 
as children, and apparently quite forgetful of the terri- 
ble tragedies that had been enacted, and of their own 
great losses. 



i84 

Lovewell's War was practically the end of Maine's 
troubles with the Indians. The colony suffered some- 
what during the French and Indian War, but the old 
power of the savages was never regained ; and when, 
in 1763, a treaty of peace was signed between France 
and England, Maine entered upon a season of security 
and prosperity. 



i 



XV. THE FIRST NAVAL BATTLE OF 
THE REVOLUTION. 

IN the days just before the Revokition, Machias was 
a scattered settlement, extending for several miles 
along the Machias River, and thence out upon its 
branches, East, West, and Middle rivers. There were 
already many mills, and the sixteen seven-acre lots of 
the first mill-owaiers formed the nucleus of the village. 

It was not a large settlement, but it was a very patri- 
otic one. The battle of Lexington had been fought, and 
its echoes had reached Machias and set the liberty- 
loving blood of its townspeople all aflame. The wnse 
and prudent town fathers felt not a little anxiety about 
their exposed situation, with British New Brunswick 
adjoining them on the one hand, an unbroken wilder- 
ness on the other, and their seacoast w^holly exposed to 
the bombardment of any enemy that might assail them. 
But there was one resolve alike in the breasts of the 
prudent fathers and the reckless, hurrahing youngsters: 
the "Britishers" should never find Machias an easy 
prey. 

A liberty pole had been erected on the village green, and 
thither the townspeople resorted to talk over the affairs 
of their Httle borough, the fishing trade and the lumber 
trade, the state of health and the state of religion, and 

185 



i86 

now the much more exciting themes of taxes and 
tyranny, and the possibiHty of throwing off the British 
yoke. The boys resorted to the common, also, and 
punctuated the patriotic speeches of their elders by ear- 
splitting hurrahs whenever Deacon Libbee, said to have 
been the austere guardian of the proprieties both in 
"meeting" and out, raised his stout hickory cane as a 
signal that such indulgence was in order. 

On a sunshiny June morning, the June of that mem- 
orable year, 1775, the Polly and the Unity, two sloops 
well known in Machias, hove in sight upon the glitter- 
ing blue of the bay. They were Ichabod Jones's vessels. 
Ichabod was a trader, and had brought a stock of much- 
needed goods and provisions of various kinds to Ma- 
chias ; and he had also brought his family, who had 
been sojourning in Boston. 

An accustomed and a welcome sight were the Unity 
and the Polly, but on that day they were convoyed by 
a rakish little armed schooner, the Alargaretta. She 
carried four light guns and fourteen swivels, and she was 
commanded by a midshipman in the British navy named 
Moore, who was a nephew of Admiral Graves, com- 
mander in chief of British naval forces in Massachusetts 
waters. 

The town fathers looked one another in the face, and 
their hearts thrilled with a vague apprehension. 

When Ichabod Jones landed, he sought his nephew 
Stephen, and, with a disturbed face, went off with him 
to his house, a house which is standing to this day. 
much altered and enlarged, at the lower end of Center 
Street. Stephen Jones was a military man, but fie 



I 



187 

became, after the colonies had attained to independence, 
chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas. It was 
soon made known that Ichabod Jones did not mean to 
unload his cargo unless he could be assured that he 
would be allowed peaceably to carry a cargo of lumber 
to Boston. He asserted that he had been able to brine 
them the stores only by making an agreement with the 
British at Boston to return with the lumber; and here 
was the armed British vessel on hand to see that the 
agreement was carried out. 

The Machias people needed the stores very much, 
and Ichabod Jones was, after all, their townsman, and 
it is uncertain what they might have decided to do if 
the commander of the Margarctta, who is variously de- 
icribed as " a youngster," " a stripling," and " a snip of 
a boy," had not ordered the liberty pole to be taken 
down, and tlireatened to fire upon the town if his order 
was not obeyed. 

A town meeting was held. The town fathers en- 
deavored to face calmly the grave problem before them. 
Benjamin Foster made the first speech, and although 
it did not absolutely counsel defiance, it had a warlike 
ring. Benjamin Foster was a man of substance, and a 
leader in the affairs of church and state. He had, also, 
the largest military experience that was represented in 
the town, having fought in the ranks at the capture 
of Louisburg, in 1745, and later, under General Aber- 
crombie, in the French and Indian War. He had come 
to Machias in 1765, established himself on East River, 
and built a sawmill there. His brother, Worden Foster, 
was already there, having come as the blacksmith of the 



i88 

settlers in 1763. Both brothers were men whose opin- 
ion had weight, and when it was a question in which 
military matters were involved, the whole town hung 
upon Benjamin Foster's words. But when he had fin- 
ished speaking, there was a dissenting voice. 

It was David Gardner, an elderly and dignified 
Quaker, who arose and spoke impressively. " Has thee 
reflected, Benjamin Foster," he said, *' that the British 
commander will assuredly fire upon the town if the pole 
remains, and mayhap will kill the women and children ? " 

There was a hush upon the little assembly as the men 
weighed David Gardner's solemn words and faced the 
dread alternative. They thought, doubtless, of their 
small garrison house, and of the httle militia company, 
organized in 1769, with Judge Jones as captain and 
Benjamin Foster as lieutenant; the feeble defense, the 
raw mihtia, would be unavailing against the enemy's 
powerful guns. 

**Then, David Gardner," said Benjamin Foster, slowly, 
" will you help to cut the liberty pole down? " 

The peaceable old Quaker blazed suddenly into wrath. 
He used wicked and un-Quaker-like language, which it 
would never do to set down here. He hoped some- 
thing might happen to him if he would. He said that 
Benjamin Foster " might do his own dirty work." 

Then there was wild cheering, and as soon as it had 
sufficiently subsided for any one to be heard, Sam Hill, 
a tall lumberman, shook his sledge-hammer fist and de- 
clared that he would inflict summary punishment upon 
any one who attempted to cut down the liberty pole. 

Captain Moore, the young of^cer in command of the 



1 89 

Margarctta, would have been glad to retract his threat, 
but he feared that by doing so he should lose the respect 
of his men. 

Ichabod Jones, who still had hopes of selling his 
goods and securing his lumber, persuaded the captain 
to withhold hostilities until the larger and fuller town 
meeting appointed for the 14th of June should have 
taken place. 

Meanwhile the little town looked about it for means 
of defense and resistance. The leading townsmen met 
together privately, by agreement, in the woods on the 
west bank of the Machias River, about a mile below the 
village. Bold were the counsels of veteran Benjamin 
Foster. He proposed making prisoners of the officers 
and men of the British ship and taking possession of the 
Margaretta and of the still partly laden sloops of Icha- 
bod Jones. 

The more cautious argued that it was only by allowing 
Ichabod Jones to load and depart, as they had voted, 
that they could be assured of stores to keep them from 
starvation hereafter. They were too small a force to give 
themselves to reckless deeds. But the O'Briens took 
sid^s with Benjamin Foster, and they were a power in the 
towi\. Six stout and brawny fellows they were, sons of 
Morris O'Brien, an Irishman born on the famous old 
river Lee, near Cork. Colonel Jeremiah O'Brien was 
the eldest of the brothers and the leader with Benjamin 
Foster in this movement. 

All the counsels of timidity or prudence were defeated 
by the impetuous daring of Foster and O'Brien. A 
dramatic little scene was enacted there, in the woodS; 



190 



when Benjamin Foster impulsively stepped across a 
brook — as an ancient leader crossed the Rubicon — and 
called upon every man who was in favor of the seizure 




of the British cutter and the two sloops to follow him. 
There was a determined rush of the bolder spirits to his 
side at first ; then the others came, lingeringly, doubt- 
fully, but at last every man had crossed the brook. 

David Gardner kept away from this meeting, lest he 
should be tempted wholly to forget his Quaker princi- 
ples, but later he gave a private word of advice to Colo- 
nel O'Brien. " Let me whisper a word in thine ear, 
Friend Jeremiah," he said. " If thee intends to board 
the Margarctta, thee must remember not to strike her 
amidships, unless thee art minded to do her an injury; 
for verily that schooner is weak in the waist, and the 
Unity, with her solid bow, would be apt to crush her." 



191 

After the brook was crossed, the next thing was to 
agree upon a plan of attack. The following day was 
Sunday, the i ith of June. The English officers would 
be at church, and it was proposed to seize them there. 
Benjamin Foster was a devout man, but he had no ob- 
jection to mingling this sort of fighting — for the defense 
of sacred rights and liberties — with his praying. 

The church was a rude building, twenty-five by forty 
feet. The townsmen surrounded the church, hiding 
their guns, and a part of them went in to the service as 
usual. John O'Brien hid his gun under a board in the 
church, and sat on the bench behind Captain Moore, 
ready at a given signal to seize him. 

Parson Lyman was probably acquainted with the plot. 
He was a native of Nova Scotia, but an ardent Whig. 
It is related that he read with great unction the hymn: 

''O Lord, to my relief draw near, 

For never was more pressing need; 
For my deliv'rance, Lord, appear, 
And add to that deliv'rance speed." 

But Parson Lyman's colored servant, London Atus, 
had not been taken into the confidence of the planners 
of this attack, and this proved to be a disastrous over- 
sight. For London, sitting humbly by the rear window, 
caught sight of Foster's armed company crossing a foot- 
bridge that connected two islands on the falls, and with 
a great outcry jumped out of the window. 

The British officers, of course, took alarm, and followed 
Atus. Ichabod Jones, who was also to have been 
taken prisoner, fled, and hid himself in the woods. The 



192 

British reached their vessel before the armed force had 
reached the church, and Captain Moore at once weighed 
anchor and sailed down the river. Foster and O'Brien 
immediately planned to seize Ichabod Jones's sloops and 
chase the Margaretta. 

The Polly was unavailable, probably because still too 
heavily laden, but the O'Briens took possession of the 
Unity ^ and before Sunday night had mustered a volun- 
teer crew of about forty men. Foster went to East 
River and secured there a schooner and a volunteer crew. 
The schooners from both villages proceeded down river 
early the next morning, but, unfortunately, the East 
River schooner got aground and lost her share in the 
battle. 

It seemed a forlorn hope that pursued the British 
cutter in the Unity. Only half of the forty men had 
muskets, and for these only three rounds of ammuni- 
tion. The other men had armed themselves with axes 
and pitchforks. And they were in pursuit of a vessel 
armed with sixteen swivel guns and four four-pounders, 
and with a full complement of disciplined men ! As they 
sailed down the river, the Unity s little force organized 
itself. Jeremiah O'Brien was captain, and Edmund 
Stevens lieutenant. 

Their little store of ammunition would be utterly 
wasted in long shots ; their desperate plan was to bear 
down upon the Margaretta and board her. Then the 
contest would be decided upon her deck. 

There was anxious looking for the East River schooner 
and her brave commander, whose counsels had led to 
this bold enterprise ; but they could not wait. It has 



193 

been said that for desperate courage no feat in all the 
Revolutionary War, and scarcely in any war, can match 
this of the handful of Machias settlers. 

When the Unity reached the broad river below Ma- 
chiasport village, the Margaretta came in sight. As 
soon as they were within hailing distance Moore shouted, 
" Keep off, or we fire ! " Stevens shouted defiance, and 
O'Brien demanded surrender. 

Instead of firing, Moore set all his sails, and with a 
favoring breeze tried to escape. He has been accused 
of being both hasty and cowardly in this action, and 
certainly seems to have deserved one, at least, of the 
charges. He stood out to sea, and the Unity followed 
him closely. A shot was fired from the Margaretta^ and 
one man on the Unity fell dead. 

The Unity answered with all her strength in a volley 
of shot. The two vessels came together, and John 
O 'Brien leaped on board the Margaretta; then they 
swung apart, and O'Brien was left on the enemy's deck 
alone. 

The English fired seven muskets at him without in- 
juring him ; but wdien they charged upon him with their 
bayonets, he jumped overboard and swam to his own 
ship. 

The next move was to try Yankee pitchforks against 
British bayonets. Captain O'Brien ran the bowsprit of 
the Unity through the mainsail of the Margaretta, and 
twenty of his men, armed only with pitchforks, rushed 
upon her deck. 

It was their one desperate chance, for all their ammu- 
nition was used up. One of the twenty men was killed, 

STO. OF MAINE — 13 



194 

one mortally and another seriously wounded. Of the 
Margaretta' s men five were killed or mortally wounded. 
One of the first to fall was Captain Moore, shot 
through by two musket balls. The Margaretta' s helms- 
man was killed, and the cutter *' broached to" and was 
run into. The others killed were Captain Robert 
Avery, an impressed American skipper, and two ma- 
rines. 

It is uncertain how many were wounded. John 
O'Brien reckoned the British list as ten killed and ten 
wounded, but it is doubtful whether there were so 
many. When Captain Moore was killed, the officer 
next in command, a midshipman named Stillingfleet, 
fled below for his life, and gave up the ship. If the 
English had known that the Americans had exhausted 
their ammunition, the issue might even then have been 
different. 

Great was the rejoicing at Machias when the Unity 
came into port with her prize, although it was mingled 
with sorrow for the slain. Among the heroes of the 
day had been Richard Earle, the colored servant of 
Colonel Jeremiah O'Brien, whose courage had been so 
great in the most trying moments as to make atonement 
for the costly stupidity of another of his race in the 
morning. 

A pleasant little story of girlish pluck is told in con- 
nection with this story of the early Revolutionary heroes. 
In making preparations for the proposed Sunday cap- 
ture of the British officers, the Machias men had sent a 
messenger to Chandlers Mills for powder and ball. The 
men of that settlement had all gone to Machias, but two 



195 



girls, Hannah and Rebecca Weston, seventeen and nine- 
teen years old, procured thirty or forty pounds of am- 
munition, and brought it to Machias through the deep 
woods, finding their way by means 
of a line of blazed trees. 

The sloop Unity was sup- ; 

plied with bulwarks, and ; I 

the armament of the 
Margarctta was trans- 
ferred to her. She 
was renamed, very 
appropriately, the 
Mac Idas Liberty, 
and commanded by 
Colonel Jeremiah 
O'Brien. 

For three or four 
weeks the Liberty 
cruised off the 
coast, trying to capture 
the Diligence, an Eng- 
lish coast-survey vessel. 
At length the Diligence 
came into the lower harbor, 
and her officers and a part of her crew landed at Bucks 
Harbor, to try to discover the fate of the j\Largarctta. 

They were surprised and taken prisoners, and the 
next day the Liberty, commanded by Colonel O'Brien, 
and the Falmouth packet, commanded by Benjamin 
Foster, captured, without resistance, the Diligence and 
her armed tender. 



■•^ 







.^^ 



196 

Thus Machlas early did its share in the great strug- 
gle for American independence, and on the 26th of 
June the Provincial Congress passed a vote of thanks to 
Colonel Jeremiah O'Brien and Benjamin Foster, and the 
brave men under their command, for their heroic ser- 
vices to the country, and placed at their disposal the 
two sloops and the British schooner which they had 
captured. 



XVI. THE BURNING OF FALMOUTH. 

NOT to Machlas only, but to all the settlements of 
Maine, had the news of the battle of Lexington 
come like a bugle call. The people of York heard of 
it on the evening of the day when it was fought, and 
the very next morning a company set out from that 
town to march to Boston. It consisted of sixty men, 
with arms, ammunition, and knapsacks full of provi- 
sions. It was the first company organized in Maine for 
the Revolutionary War. 

Falmouth (now Portland) was the town next in order, 
sending a strong company on the 2ist, two days after 
the battle of Lexington. Biddeford came next, with a 
full regiment under Colonel James Scammon, who had 
seen military service and was a very able and popular 
man. Within a few days thousands of men had left 
their farms, forgetful of seedtime, and ready to sacrifice 
their lives, if need be, to protect their country's liberty. 

Falmouth was the most important town in Maine. 
It was the shire town of Cumberland county, and a 
customhouse was located there. There was a large party 
of royalists in Falmouth — crown officers and their polit- 
ical allies and friends ; but among the great majority of 
the people there was an intensely patriotic feeling. 

The Stamp Act of 1765 had been resented m Fal- 

197 



mouth by the burning of the odious stamps, which had 
been brought by an EngHsh vessel and stored in the 
customhouse. 

In 1774, when the port of Boston was closed by the 
British, the bell of Falmouth meetinghouse was muffled 
and solemmly tolled from sunrise to sunset. When the 
tax was imposed upon tea, a gathering of the townspeople 
passed a resolution to buy no more tea until the act 
that laid a duty upon it was repealed. 

The meetings were usually held in Mrs. Greele's little 
one-story tavern, which long remained an historic land- 
mark. A society called the American Association had 
been formed in the different settlements of Maine, whose 
purpose was to interfere with the tyrannical monopoly 
of trade and manufactures by the English. A Fal- 
mouth royalist. Captain Samuel Coulson, a violent op- 
poser of the patriots, had built a large vessel and sent 
to England for materials, sails, rigging, and stores. The 
patriotic Americans had resolved that no English goods, 
with the oppressive duties demanded, should be received 
on their shores. 

So when, in May of the eventful year 1775, a vessel 
arrived in Falmouth with Captain Coulson's goods, the 
committee of the association met and decided that the 
goods should forthwith be sent back to England. Cap- 
tain Coulson determined to land his supplies. He ap- 
plied for British aid, and a sloop of war, the Canseati, 
commanded by Captain Mowatt, was sent to Falmouth to 
his assistance. This Captain Mowatt, being a prudent 
man, hesitated to arouse the wrath of the people by 
resorting to violent measures. While he hesitated, the 



199 



people were not Idle. A company of fifty men, all skilled 
in the use of arms, had been raised in Brunswick for the 
purpose of seizing the Canseaii. The company came in 
boats, under command of Colonel Samuel Thompson, a 
man of reckless daring, and encamped, under cover of 
night, in the woods on Munjoys Hill. 

On the morning after the company's arrival, Captain 
Mowatt, the surgeon of the Caiiseaii, and the Rev. Mr. 
Wiswall, the Episcopal clergy- 
man of Falmouth, were ^r^-^' 
taking a walk to- 
gether upon the hill. 'M-^^.isH^:^ 
The reckless Cap- 
tain Thompson 
seized Captain 
Mowatt and the 



-If % 



surgeon. 



and 




held them pris- 
oners. Then 
there was wild 
excitement and 
dismay, for the 
town was at the mercy 
of the Caiisecui' s guns, and the second officer of the ship 
threatened that if the prisoners were not released before 
six o'clock he would open fire. 

The excited townspeople were all in the streets; 
women ran about weeping and praying; every country- 
man's cart was piled high with household goods and 
with women fleeing with their children. 

A committee of prominent citizens demanded of Colo- 



200 

nel Thompson that he should save the town by freeing 
the prisoners. But he declared that there was war 
between America and Great Britain, and they were his 
rightful prisoners. However, he at last made the con- 
cession of releasing the captives, on parole, for the night, 
they promising to return to the encampment at nine 
o'clock the next morning. Two Falmouth townsmen 
pledged themselves as sureties of the two prisoners. 

They did not appear in the morning, and the two sure- 
ties were arrested and held prisoners all day, without 
food. When Thompson sent to the Canscan to inquire 
why the parole had been broken, Mowatt returned an- 
swer that his washerwoman had heard that he was to 
be shot as soon as he appeared on shore. 

Meanwhile, from all the little settlements around, 
companies of militia were marching to the relief of Fal- 
mouth. When they reached there, a court martial was 
established to discover who were in sympathy w^ith the 
enemy. The Rev. Mr. Wiswall was one of the sus- 
pected, but declared, under oath, that he believed in re- 
sistance to British aggressions, and was released. No 
avowed royalists seem to have been discovered, for none 
of those who were questioned were condemned. 

The soldiers were riotous, broke into Captain Coul- 
son's house, and made free with his wines. Then an in- 
toxicated soldier fired at the war ship, and Uvo bullets 
penetrated her hull. Only a musket w^as discharged 
from the Caiiseau in return, and by that no one was hit. 

Colonel Thompson still held the sureties. Colonel 
Freeman and General Preble, and kept them on bread 
and water. In the midst of the terror and confusion, 



20I 

Thursday, the iith of May, was observed as a day of 
fasting and prayer. But besides fasting and praying 
they succeeded, on that day, in capturing one of Mow- 
att's boats. He threatened to burn the town unless 
the boat were restored, but Thompson's men returned to 
Brunswick the next day, and carried the boat with them. 

On the following Monday Captain Movvatt sailed, in 
the Canseaiiy for Portsmouth, with Captain Coulson and 
his new vessel. But he left threats of direful venge- 
ance behind him. On the 8th of June a British war 
ship of sixteen guns, the Senegal, anchored in Falmouth 
harbor. Four days afterwards the Senegal's errand 
became evident, for Captain Coulson came in his new 
ship and anchored beside her, hoping that by the aid of 
her threatening guns he would be able to secure the 
masts for his ship. 

But the Provincial Congress had, by this time, passed 
a law to prevent Tories from taking their property out 
of the country, and Coulson was not allowed to take his 
masts. He departed again, under convoy of the SeJte- 
gal, and quiet reigned until the i6th of October. 

That was a day memorable in the annals of the little 
provincial town. Early in the morning five vessels ap- 
peared in the harbor. The Canseau was the leader; 
behind her came the Cat, a large war ship, with a bomb 
sloop and two armed schooners. A strong head wind 
served to keep them off all that day, but on the next 
they were all anchored in the harbor, their formidable 
broadsides bearing upon the defenseless little town. 
An officer from the fleet, bearing a letter, under a fla 
of truce, landed at the foot of what was then King Street 



cr 



202 

The whole town turned out and followed him quietly, 
but in great excitement and suspense, to the town 
house, where he deliv^ered the letter. The British cap- 
tain's epistle was ridiculously ungrammatical and ill 
spelled, but its dreadful meaning was clear: " You have 
long experienced Britain's forbearance in withholding 
the rod of correction. You have been guilty of the 
most unpardonable rebellion. I am ordered to execute 
just punishment on the town of Falmouth. I give you 
two hours in which you can remove the sick and the 
infirm. I shall then open fire and lay the town in ashes." 
A stupefying dismay overcame the people for a few 
moments. They felt that the calamity was too terrible 
to be real. Then they began to realize that there was 
not a moment to lose. 

A committee of three was appointed to visit Mowatt 
and discover whether, by any possible means, the ca- 
lamity could be averted. The three men chosen were 
Episcopalians and supposed friends of the English. 
But Mowatt was not to be moved. He had already 
risked the loss of his commission, he declared, by his 
humanity in giving them warning. His simple and ex- 
plicit orders were to anchor opposite the town with all 
possible expedition, and then burn, sink, and destroy. 
The order, doubtless, proceeded from Admiral Graves, 
who then commanded the port of Boston. 

The committee endeavored to make Mowatt realize 
the extreme cruelty of his order. The sick and dying, 
the feeble women and children, would be shelterless, in 
the fields and woods, in the chilling autumn night. The 
Tory families, who had adhered persistently to the 



203 

British government, would suffer with the rest. Per- 
sonal feeling should enter into the captain's considera- 
tion for them, for they were his friends and had shown 
him much hospitality. 

Mowatt showed some shame in view of the brutal 
deed which he was called upon to commit, and he at 
length consented to delay the bombardment until nine 
o'clock the next morning, provided that the people 
would reduce themselves to an absolutely defenseless 
condition by surrendering to him all the cannon and 
small arms and ammunition in the place. If eight 
small arms were sent to him before eight o'clock that 
evening, he would understand that his terms were 
accepted, and he would postpone the burning of the 
town until he had time to receive further instructions 
from Admiral Graves. 

The committee told him that the people would prob- 
ably refuse to accept the humiliating terms; but there 
was nothing to be done but to return to the town and 
communicate them to the anxious assemblage in the 
town house. A chorus of determined noes was the 
answer of the patriots. But, for the sake of gaining 
time, they sent the eight small arms to Captain Mowatt, 
with a message that they would summon a town meet- 
ing early in the morning and give him their final answer 
before eight o'clock. 

But at the town meeting the first decision was hero- 
ically confirmed. At eight o'clock the next morning 
the same committee of three carried the message to 
Mowatt that the arms would not be surrendered. 

At nine o'clock the signal of England's ruthless venge- 



204 

ance was run up to the masthead of all the vessels of 
the fleet, and the terrific bombardment began. All day 
long, until six in the evening, the dreadful storm of 
bombs, cannon balls, shells, bullets, and grapeshot fell 
upon the town, and one hundred men were landed in 
boats to fire any buildings that might escape the shot 
and shell. 

Falmouth was then already a fine town. It had four 
hundred dwelling houses, some of them expensive and 
handsome, churches, a library, and several fine public 
buildings. Most of the buildings were of wood, and the 
town was soon a roaring sea of flame. Two hundred 
and seventy-eight homes were in ashes, and the whole 
number of buildings destroyed was four hundred and 
fourteen. Many hundred persons were reduced to the 
most extreme distress. 

The losses amounted to an enormous sum of money 
for the time and place. In the desolated town the 
General Court soon after began to erect a small garrison 
with a battery of six cannon, and sent four hundred 
soldiers to help to protect the Maine coast. 

Falmouth recovered itself very slowly, at first, from 
the terrible blow, but after prosperity came with peace, 
the gain of the town, in its beautiful and healthful loca- 
tion, was very rapid. In i 786 it was divided, and the 
peninsula and several of the islands in the harbor were 
incorporated into a town, to which was given the name 
of Portland. 



XVII. A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE. 

GENERAL PELEGWADSWORTH,whowas born 
in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and was graduated 
from Harvard College in the class of i 769, raised a com- 
pany of minutemen immediately after the battle of Lex- 
ington, and was the second officer of the expedition sent 
against 'Biguyduce, the old fortress that had so much to 
do with the fortunes of Maine from the beginning. 

A strong fort had been built there by the British, 
that they might command the entire valley. Mowatt, 
the ruthless destroyer of Falmouth, had been assigned 
to the 'Biguyduce station, with a fleet of three war 
ships. The General Court of Massachusetts sent an 
expedition, consisting of nineteen armed vessels and 
twenty-four transports, to capture the fort. The fleet 
carried three hundred and forty-four guns and an abun- 
dance of all needful munitions of war. But the enter- 
prise proved a total failure, owing, it was thought, to 
the lack of skill of its commander. 

The land force, under the command of Generals Lovell 
and Wadsworth, was managed very ably, but there was 
no adequate support from the fleet. The garrison had 
an opportunity to send to Halifax for aid, and a formi- 
dable fleet of British vessels entered the harbor on the 
14th of August, and practically annihilated the Ameri- 

205 



206 

can fleet. It was a most humiliating defeat, and the 
commander was pronounced incapacitated from ever 
after holding a commission in the service of the state ; 
but Generals Lovell and Wadsworth were relieved from 
any share of blame. 

The vessels of the American fleet having been all cap- 
tured or burned, the marines were forced to retreat 
through the wilderness to the Kennebec, suffering great 
hardships on the way. The General Court sent three 
hundred soldiers to the protection of Falmouth, two 
hundred to Camden, and a hundred to Machias. The 
command of this eastern division was assigned to Gen- 
eral Wadsworth, whose headquarters were at Thom- 
aston. 

The general lived in a secluded place, on the banks of 
a little stream, in Thomaston. Six soldiers guarded 
the family, which consisted of General Wadsworth, his 
wife, a son of five, a baby daughter, and a Miss Fenno, 
a friend of Mrs. Wadsworth. 

It became known to the English at 'Biguyduce that 
the general was but feebly defended, and Lieutenant 
Stockton was sent, with a party of twenty-five men, to 
capture him. It was in the dead of winter and bitterly 
cold. 

The English soldiers reached General Wadsworth's 
house at midnight. When the sentinel rushed into 
the house to give the alarm, the soldiers discharged a 
volley of bullets through the open door. They sur- 
rounded the house, smashed the windows, and battered 
down the doors, and fired into the sleeping rooms of 
the family. 



207 



General Wadsworth, armed with a brace of pistols and 
a flintlock musket, fought bravely and fiercely. But 
defense was hopeless against so many. Driven to close 
quarters, the general defended 
himself with a bayonet until 
he was shot through the 
arm rendered helpless, 
and obliged to sur- 
render. A brutal sol- 
dier would have shot 
him down if an officer 
had not pushed aside 
the gun. 

So fierce had been the 
contest that nearly all the 
guard were wounded, as 
well as the general, one 
being in such torture 
from a wound that he 
begged to be shot. 
Fortunately, not one 
of the women or chil- 
dren was struck by 
the hailstorm of bullets. 
The genera] had sprung 
from his bed, and had no 
time to dress himself. After his surrender one of the 
English officers went into his room with a lighted candle 
and helped him to dress. His wound was so painful that 
he was unable to wear his coat, and a blanket was thrown 
over him to protect him from the extreme cold. His wife 




208 

was not allowed to examine o^ dress tne wound, but a 
handkerchief was bound about it tostay the flow of blood. 

The house was on fire, and the general, as he was 
hurried away, had to endure not only the pain of his 
wound, but the greatest anxiety for the fate of his family. 
His little son was missing, but was afterwards discovered 
to have buried himself in the bedclothes, where he was 
quite safe from the flying bullets. 

Two of the wounded British soldiers were placed upon 
General Wadsworth's horse, while he, although weak 
from loss of blood, was forced to walk. After strug- 
gling along for a mile, his strength failed him utterly, 
and they left one of the wounded soldiers, who was ap- 
parently dying, at a house by the way, and placed the 
general upon the horse, behind the other soldier. When 
they reached the shore ofT which the vessel, an English 
privateer, lay at anchor, the captain cried out to the 
general furiously : " You accursed rebel, go and help 
them launch the boat, or I will run you through with 
my sword ! " 

General Wadsworth answered with dignity : " I 
am a prisoner, wounded and helpless. You may treat 
me as you please." But Lieutenant Stockton was 
less of a brute than this. He promptly silenced the 
fellow, assuring him that his conduct should be reported 
to his superiors. " The prisoner is a gentleman," he 
said. *' He has made a brave defense. He is entitled 
to be treated honorably." 

Upon the vessel General Wadsworth was given a 
berth and made as comfortable as was possible under 
the circumstances. 



209 

The vessel reached 'Biguyduce the next day, and the 
prisoners were greeted upon the shore by a throng of 
British officers, sailors, and soldiers, with shouts of rage 
and scorn. They had to be protected by a guard from 
the violence of the British mob, as thev were marched 
half a mile to the fort. But once there, General Wads- 
worth was very kindly treated, having his wounds 
dressed by a surgeon. 

General Campbell, commander of the fort, expressed 
great admiration of the defense that General Wadsworth 
had made against such heavy odds, and assured him 
that the captain of the privateer who had insulted him 
should m.ake him a suitable apology. He dined at the 
commandant's table, was given a comfortable room, and 
was supplied with books and writing materials. 

There w^as an encampment of American soldiers at 
Camden, and Lieutenant Stockton sent for him to that 
station, only four miles from the place where he had 
been taken prisoner, a letter to his wife, and another, 
under a flag of truce, to the governor of Massachusetts. 
Within two wrecks he learned that his family was safe. 

It was five weeks before he was able to move. He 
asked permission to leave the fort on his parole, but 
this, although a customary privilege, was denied him. 
After he had been a prisoner for two months his wife 
and Miss Fenno were allowed to visit him. 

He discovered, about that time, that he was to be sent 
to England to be tried as a rebel. Such was the bru- 
tality \\\\\\ which the British were now treating their 
American prisoners that being sent to England meant, 
almost certainl}^ being sent to the gallows. 

STO. OF MAIX.E — I 4 



2IO 

His companion on this unhappy journey was to be 
Major Benjamin Burton, who had been recently cap- 
tured, and was imprisoned in the same room with General 
Wadsworth. Major Burton was a brave man, and by 
his courage had especially aroused the animosity of the 
British officers. To him, as well as to General Wads- 
worth, transportation to England would mean consign- 
ment to the gallows. 

In this desperate situation they formed a desperate 
plan of escape. They were in a grated room within 
the fort, and guards were stationed at their door. The 
walls of the fort, twenty feet high, were surrounded by 
a ditch. Sentinels were posted upon the walls and out- 
side the gates of the fort. Beyond the ditch were more 
guards, who patrolled through the night. The fort was 
built upon a peninsula, and a picket guard was placed 
at the isthmus, the only point where escape to the main- 
land was possible. 

General Wadsworth was familiar with everything in 
and around 'Biguyduce, and he knew the odds they 
would have to encounter; but feeling their situation to 
be hopeless unless they could escape, the prisoners took 
their one desperate chance to do so. 

Their room had a pine-board ceiling, and in some 
way they had become possessed of a penknife and a 
gimlet. Working with these early and late, whenever 
it was possible to do so and avoid detection, in three 
weeks they had cut out a panel in the ceiling large 
enough for a man to crawl through. To conceal each 
cut as it was made, they covered it with a paste made 
of bread moistened in their mouths. When the aper- 



211 



ture was large enough they were forced to wait, in 
sore suspense, for a night of favoring darkness and rain. 

On the 1 8th of June the night came. The storm 
began with thunder and Hghtning. 
At midnio^ht there was a furious \ 
o^ale, with floods of rain, and even \ Vvti 
the sentinels sought shelter. The 
prisoners removed the panel 
which they had cut out, and then 
lifted themselves up through 
the aperture into an entry- 
way above. They groped 
theirwayalongin utter dark- 
ness, and before long, unfor- 
tunately, became separated. 

Wadsworth at length reached 
the top of the wall, having made ^i 
his way, providentially, into a path ^Si^mf' 



used by the soldiers. Fastening the 
blanket which he had brought with 
him to a picket, he lowered himself 
until he could safely drop into the 
ditch. In the howling wind and 
beating rain he crept cautiously 
along between the sentry boxes, 
and reached in safety the open field. 
On the shore of the back cove 
was an abandoned guardhouse, where th 
two friends had agreed to meet if they 
should become separated. General Wads 
worth made his way in the darkness, over rocks 





212 

and through a little wilderness of brush heaps and 
stumps, until he reached the guardhouse. 

Here he waited for half an hour, hoping in vain that 
Major Burton would join him. He was finally forced 
to the conclusion that his friend was lost, and sadly 
went on to try to save himself. 

It was low tide, and he was able to wade across the 
cove, a mile in width, though the water was above his 
waist. He found a road which he had himself caused 
to be cut for the carrying of cannon when stationed at 
'Biguyduce, and struggled on until, at sunrise, he was 
about eight miles beyond the fort. 

The sun rose clear above the wrecks of the storm, and 
the most gladsome sight that it showed to the general 
was the friend whom he had given up for lost follow- 
ing close upon his footsteps. It is easy to imagine how 
joyful must have been the meeting. But there was no 
time to be lost, for the enemy was doubtless by this 
time in hot pursuit. 

They fortunately found a boat upon the shore, and 
in it they crossed the river, landing on the western 
bank just below Orphan Island. They had but just 
landed when they caught sight of a boat of the enemy, 
evidently in pursuit. 

With a small pocket compass as a guide, they made 
their way southwesterly through the woods, and, after 
three days of severe struggle, reached an American 
settlement, where they obtained horses and easily fin- 
ished their journey to Thomaston. 

' General Wadsworth removed to Portland at the close 
of the war, and built the first brick house in the town. 



213 

He was the maternal grandfather of Henry Wadsworth 
Longfellow, and in this brick house the poet passed his 
youthful days. General Wadsworth was the first rep- 
resentative to Congress from the Cumberland district. 
He died, in 1829, at the age of eighty-one. 



XVIII. THE BRITISH AGAIN IN MAINE. 

THIRTY years had passed since the close of the 
Revolutionary War, and Maine had enjoyed her 
long-foLight-for and hard-won peace and been greatly 
increased and prospered. But she had to have her share 
in the crisis of a difficulty with England which had 
lasted long and become unendurable. 

Forced to acknowledge the independence of the colo- 
nies, Britannia still claimed to rule the wave, and con- 
stantly inflicted outrages upon our commerce and im- 
pressed our seamen for her navy. 

Aroused by more and more flagrant offenses of this 
kind, the American Congress, on the i8th of June, 1812, 
passed an act declaring that war existed between the 
United States and England. To meet the expenses of 
the war, a tax of $74,220 was levied upon Maine, and it 
is said that more soldiers were enlisted in the district 
of Maine, according to its population, than in any 
state of the Union. There were over twenty thousand 
men, all in marching order, ready to do Maine's share 
in another struggle for liberty. 

A British brig carrying eighteen guns and a crew of 
a hundred and four men had been, for a long time, the 
scourge of our coasts. No gallant merchant ship, no 
modest coaster, was safe from the depredations of the 

214 



215 

Boxer. Captain Blythe, who commanded her, was a 
daring young EngHshman, only twenty-nine years old. 
There lay at anchor in Portland harbor the American 
brig Enterprise, commanded by Captain Burrows, who 
was only twenty-eight. 

The Boxer cruised off Portland harbor for the pur- 
pose of drawing the Enterprise into an encounter. It 
was a fierce and bloody fight which took place between 
the two vessels on the 5 th of September, 18 14, at 
three o'clock in the afternoon. 

They were very near together and poured a deadly fire 
into each other. Within half an hour both young cap- 
tains lay dead upon the bloody decks and the Boxer 
had struck her colors. Her defeat was utter, for she had 
lost, besides her captain, nearly half her crew. On the 
Enterprise but two were killed and twelve wounded. 
The Enterprise returned victorious to Portland the next 
day, bringing the Boxer as her prize. 

The public rejoicing was great, although it was 
mingled with sorrow over the death of the brave young 
Burrows. The officers were buried side by side with 
military honors. 

The whole Atlantic coast was declared by the British 
in a state of blockade, and was infested by the enemy's 
cruisers. Any American vessel upon the seas was liable 
to be stopped by threatening guns from a British war 
ship, and an officer would board her and select from her 
crew any American seamen, and drag them on board the 
British man-of-war. If resistance were attempted, the 
British officers did not scruple to use club and sword 
* to compel submission. Even our armed vessels were 



2l6 

searched, and were fired upon if they resisted. More than 
six thousand men were taken from American vessels 
and forced to man British guns. 

The British claimed that Moose Island, upon which 
the fortified town of Eastport was situated, belonged to 
them by virtue of the treaty of 1783. On the iith of 
July, 1 8 14, a British fleet of five war vessels and three 
or four transports arrived at Eastport, anchored beside 
the fortifications, and demanded their surrender. It was 
a powerful fleet. The Rainilies, having on board the 
commodore, Sir Thomas Hardy, was a seventy-four- 
gun ship. The Martin, Rover, Brcame, and Terror were 
large ships carrying heavy guns ; there was a bomb ship 
also, and the transports carried a great force of men. 
It is no wonder that the little town was appalled and 
hopeless when the surrender of the fort was demanded 
in five minutes. Major Putnam, the commander, was 
a man of reckless courage. His reply to the British 
was : '* The fort will be defended against whatever force 
may be brought against it." But the whole town re- 
monstrated again.st the hopeless resistance to a force 
which could destroy it in an hour, and Major Putnam 
was compelled to strike the fort's flag. 

The British flag was hoisted oyer the fort. The com- 
modore took possession of the town, with all its public 
property, and seized all the American soldiers and forced 
them on board the British ships. 

The inhabitants of Moose Island, and of all the other 
islands in Passamaquoddy Ba\% were ordered to assemble 
at the Eastport schoolhouse on the sixteenth day of the 
month, and then and there take the oath of allegiance 



217 

to the King of England, or else within seven days to take 
their departure from the islands. Nearly two thirds of 
the inhabitants submitted to this demand, feeliny^ them- 
selv^es utterly helpless to resist. 

On August 26, a still more powerful British fleet set 
sail from Halifax to the Maine coast to reduce its hardy 
and defiant sons to submission to the British rule. 

This fleet consisted of three seventy-four-gun ships, 
two frigates, two war sloops, an armed schooner, a 
large tender, and ten transports. The troops embarked 
numbered nearly three thousand men. Some authorities 
give the number as six thousand ; it is certain that there 
were two regiments, two companies of a third regiment, 
and a detachment of royal artillery. The fleet was 
commanded by Lieutenant General Sir John Sherbrooke, 
governor of Nova Scotia. 

When, on the i8th of September, this powerful fleet 
cast anchor in Castine harbor, it was evident that resist- 
ance was useless. The garrison blew up its small bat- 
tery and fled, and the British took undisputed possession. 
One of the officers, with a force of six hundred men, 
crossed the bay and seized and plundered Belfast, re- 
turning after this exploit to Castine. 

Everywhere the quiet little towns were wholly un- 
prepared for war. In all Massachusetts only about six 
hundred regular troops were to be found, and beyond 
the Penobscot, in September, 18 14, hardly a full com-' 
pany could have been collected. The able-bodied vot- 
ing male population of the counties of Kennebec and 
Hancock, on either side the Penobscot, was about 
twelve thousand. And the powerful British troops met 



2l8 



with little or no resistance. A few days before Sher- 
brooke's descent upon Castine, the United States ship 
Adams, a heavy corvet, carrying twenty-eight guns, 

which had escaped 
from the British at 
Chesapeake Bay 
and had been cruis- 
ing some months at 
sea, struck on a reef 
at lie au Haut, and 
was brought into 
the Penobscot Riv- 
er in a sinking con- 
dition. 

Captain Morris, 
who commanded 
the Adams, took her up 
_- the river about twenty- 

five miles to Hampden, near 
Bangor, to repair her. General 
Sherbrooke, on occupying Castine, 
sent a force of six hundred men up to 
Hampden, in boats, to capture and de- 
stroy the Adams, while he occupied Belfast with an- 
other regiment. Captain Morris's crew numbered prob- 
ably only about two hundred men, but he placed great 
dependence upon aid from the militia. When he heard 
of the approach of the British he hastily put his guns 
in battery and prepared to defend tlie ship. 

On the morning of September 3, in a thick fog, the 
British boats sailed up the river and announced them- 




219 

selves by firing at peaceful citizens on the east side 
of the river, in Orrington. They fired a cannon ball 
through the house of Mr. Lord, near the ferry, killing 
a man named Reed. A little farther up the river they 
fired a cannon ball which came so near the head of Mr. 
James Brooks as to blow his hat oflf. He had with him 
the children and the cattle, escaping to the woods. An- 
other cannon ball went through the meetinghouse, and 
there is set down in the annals of the Orrington (Meth- 
odist) Quarterly Conference this record: " September 3, 
1 8 14. The British troops coming up the river prevented 
O. M. [Quarterly Meeting]. They shot a cannon ball 
through the meetinghouse this day." 

The little hamlet of Hampden was panic-stricken. 
" The sons of Revolutionary sires at Hampden had 
never seen battle," says an old record. " Their white- 
haired fathers were too old for the fray. Besides, the 
councils of New England had decided the war unneces- 
sary and wrong. The United States made no demands 
and rendered no aid." Eastport fell in June, Washing- 
ton and Alexandria a month later, Castine and Ban- 
gor in September. 

In an hour Hampden was entirely in the power of the 
enemy. They plundered property, killed cattle, abused 
the inhabitants, and burned their vessels. They spared 
only those vessels for which money could be extorted 
from their owners. 

Robert Barrie, the commander of the British fleet, was 
insolent and brutal. When a committee of citizens 
waited upon him_ and begged him to treat the commu- 
nity with more humanity, he replied angrily : " I have no 



220 

humanity for you. My business is to burn, sink, and 
destroy. Your town is taken by storm. By tlie rules 
of war we ought to lay your village in ashes and put its' 
inhabitants to the sword. But I will spare your lives, 
though I mean to burn your houses." 

But an order came from General Sherbrooke not to 
burn the houses. So the fleet proceeded up the river to 
Bangor, and took possession of the place without en- 
countering any resistance. All public or private prop- 
erty upon which hands could be laid was regarded as 
lawful spoil. 

The British crossed the river to Brewer and burned 
all the shipping there. It was a reign of terror in all the 
region about Bangor, but a gala occasion for the British 
officers, who disported themselves about the neighbor- 
hood of the city, wearing uniforms glittering with gold 
lace, and making themselves especially free with side- 
boards and cellars, which, in those days, it was the 
fashion to keep well stocked. 

Across the river, in Brewer, a party of officers at- 
tempted to force the hospitality of General Blake, an old 
soldier of Revolutionary fame. But the general fore- 
stalled them and dispensed liquors from his sideboard 
with the stately courtesy of a gentleman of the old 
school. To one of them he was so extremely polite 
that the officer remarked in surprise: 

** Perhaps you do not know who I am, sir. I am a 
British officer. I am General Gosselin ! " 

" I know you are," returned the old general, his in- 
dignation getting the better of his politeness, '* and 
curse the goose that hatched you! " 



'21 



There were many humors of the tryini,^ and discour- 
aging situation, as there is, almost ahvays, a hghter side 
to the dark things of hfe. 

General Sherbrooke had 
no orders to occupy the 
country west of the Pe- 
nobscot ; so, after a 
hundred and ninety- 
one of the principal 
citizens of Bangor 
had been compelled 
to sign a document 
declaring themselves 
prisoners of war and 
promising not to 
serve against the Brit- 
ish government unless 
exchanged, the fleet de- 
scended the river to Frankfort. 

Here the British officers contented themselves with 
seizing forty oxen, a hundred sheep, and all the poul- 
try and produce that they could lay hands on. 

On the 9th of September they returned to Castine, 
which was made a port of entry. Several ships of war 
guarded the harbor, and twenty-two hundred troops 
were placed there in garrison. All the province of 
Maine east of the Penobscot was then in Sherbrooke's 
hands, and the inhabitants of the Kennebec valley 
feared that he would overrun and lay waste their coun- 
try in the same manner that he had ravaged the Penob- 
scot shores. 




222 

The British commander organized a provincial gov- 
ernment for the territory, and all male inhabitants over 
sixteen were forced to take the oath of allegiance to the 
King of England. " A hundred miles of our seacoast 
passed quietly into the hands of King George." 

At Hampden a customhouse was opened for the 
introduction of British goods. Castine, the headquar- 
ters of the British, became very gay socially. Many of 
the English officers were gentlemen, and endeavored to 
relieve the monotony of life in the little Maine town by 
gentlemanly amusements. A theater was opened, and 
there were balls, at which many a Castine maiden first 
learned to trip the light fantastic toe ; for dancing was 
an amusement that had been frowned upon by the 
sober-minded settlers. 

The gay times that were enjoyed " when the British 
were at Castine " have been the theme of many a grand- 
mother's reminiscences in that region. Castine re- 
mained to all intents and purposes a foreign port. It 
was the only place in the United States which was al- 
lowed to hold any commercial relations whatever with 
England or her colonies, and many cargoes of European 
merchandise were brought there. 

Upon the principle of international law that neutral 
vessels must be allowed to enter our harbors, large 
quantities of merchandise which had been imported into 
Castine were continually carried away from there, in a 
Swedish schooner, to Hampden, where Mr. Hook, the 
United States collector of customs, had established his 
office, and there duly entered under our laws. 

This traffic was so extensive that duties amounting to 



223 

one hundred and fifty thousand dollars were received at 
Hampden during a period of five weeks, and from 
twenty to forty teams were constantly engaged in trans- 
porting goods across the country. 

A little company of militia from Northport captured, 
near Castine, a sloop with her cargo of cloth and silks, 
which brought seventy thousand dollars at auction. 

American paper money not being current, traders from 
Boston and other points would pick up Eastern bills and 
require their exchange for gold and silver. The result 
was that every bank in Maine was soon obliged to sus- 
pend specie payment. 

An inveterate smuggling, for which the long stretch 
of unguarded territory afforded great opportunity, was 
carried on, and all sorts of schemes were invented to 
elude and deceive the revenue officers. 

Wagons with double bottoms, affording a hiding 
place for silks and laces, were a favorite device. A 
sheriff of Hancock county, living in Ellsworth, on his 
way to Boston stopped for the night at Wiscasset. The 
peculiar appearance of his wagon excited suspicion, and 
upon examination two bottoms w^ere found, between 
which was concealed a quantity o'f valuable English 
merchandise, which was seized and condemned. 

As the smuggler occupied a high office and was a 
prominent member of the Federal or anti-war party, the 
affair attracted widespread attention, and the following 
jocular allusion to it appeared in the Boston " Patriot " 
of November 9, 1814: 

" The Double-bottomed Wagon : The next trip Mr. 
Sheriff Adams takes to Castine we would advise him to 



224 

make use of an air balloon, as there appears to be no 
safety in traveling by land. The double-bottomed 
wagons are not safe from the grip of James Madison's 
sentinels ; but in an air balloon there will be perfect 
safety, as the officers of government are not permitted 
to travel in the air nor to make seizures there." 

After sleighing commenced, sleighs with false backs 
and fronts, and pungs with false bottoms, became favor- 
ite vehicles with the smuggling community. It was not 
unusual to see a large, portly gentleman drive up to the 
tavern door just at dusk, order his horse to be put up, 
and after taking supper retire for the night, leaving or- 
ders to be called early in the morning. He invariably 
came from the East. A rigid examination of him and 
his surroundings would have led to the discovery, prob- 
ably, that the plump saddle on his horse's back was 
stuffed with sewing silk; that silks and satins were 
hidden between the two backs and fronts of his sleigh ; 
that the false crown in his hat concealed a pound or 
more of needles, and that his trunk contained nothing 
but a lot of old newspapers. The lean, lank, shadlike 
guest who appeared in the early morning would hardly 
be recognized as the portly gentleman of the preceding 
night, and the increase in the weight of his trunk dur- 
ing the night was truly miraculous. Travelers of this 
character invariably took the back route from the Penob- 
scot for the West ; all the revenue officers were stationed 
on the shore route. 

As the duties established on imports at Castine ranged 
from five per cent, ad valorem to forty-three cents per 
gallon on spirits, the amount of revenue collected there 



225 

must have been large. This seems to have accrued to the 
province of Nova Scotia, for, in 1816, Lord Bathurst, 
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, authorized the 
expenditure of duties levied at Castine on such local 
improvements as the governor should suggest. 

From the customs receipts collected at Castine, in 
18 14- 15, i^i,ooo was granted to aid the military li- 
brary at Halifax, and ^^9,750 toward the establishment 
of a college at Halifax. This was the foundation of 
Dalhousie College (now University), with buildings lo- 
cated on a public square of the city, departments of art 
and science, and a faculty of ten professors, — all from 
duties levied on the Yankees by the British at Castine. 

On the 24th of December, 1814, was signed the 
treaty of Ghent, by which peace was established be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States. The news 
reached this country on the iith of February, 18 15, 
and was received with great demonstrations of joy all 
over the country. On the 25th of April the British 
troops evacuated Castine, after having occupied it for 
eight months. Old 'Biguyduce, after its varied fortunes, 
was once more Yankee soil, and has remained so ever 
since. 



STO. OF MAINE— 15 



M 



XIX. MAINE IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

AINE'S part in the Civil War was similar to that 
of many another state — she simply did her best. 
But that best was such an astonishing thing for a state 
of her resources, that the bare and cold statistics thrill 
her children's hearts with pride, and may well furnish 
excuse for a little boasting. 

She sent 72,945 men to the battlefields. The num- 
ber killed in the army list (we have none of the navy 
or marine corps) amounted to 7,322. 

Maine furnished thirty-two infantry regiments, three 
regiments of cavalry, one regiment of heavy artillery, 
seven batteries of mounted artillery, seven companies 
of sharpshooters, thirty companies of unassigned infan- 
try, seven companies of coast guards, and six companies 
for coast fortifications ; 6,750 men were also contributed 
to the navy and marine corps. The amount of bounty 
paid in the state was $9,695,620.93. The value of 
hospital stores contributed was $731,134. Bangor 
boasted that she raised the first company of volun- 
teers that enlisted in the United States. But the first 
company which filled its ranks and was accepted by the 
governor was the Lewiston Light Infantry. In the small 
town of Cherryfield the names of fifty volunteers were 

upon the enlistment roll in four hours after it was opened. 

226 



227 

Maine had an enrolled militia of about sixty thousand 
men, but in the " piping times of peace " there had been 
no drilling, and the militia was unarmed and unorgan- 
ized. And yet the first and second regiments sent from 
Maine were so thoroughly armed and equipped as to 
receive especial praise from the Secretary of War. 

The Second Maine had the fortune to grace battle's 
brunt on eleven hard-fought fields in the course of two 
years. In the battle of Manassas, where the Union 
army was completely routed and forced to flee, the 
Second carried itself with an undaunted courage that 
reflected great credit upon the state. 

At Bull Run the Second was also to the fore. A pri- 
vate letter written to friends at home says : " The brav- 
ery of our boys is the theme of every one. All fought 
well, so well that it would seem difficult to particularize, 
but the boys speak so warmly of the conduct of Lieu- 
tenant Gurnsey, Captain Sargent, Lieutenant Casey, and 
Peter Welch, that I know it will give no offense to others 
to name them. Of young Gurnsey the boys say he is 
'a little brick.' The regiment charged up a hill on a 
twenty-gun battery. At the top of the hill was a Vir- 
ginia fence, only a few paces from the battery. Gurnsey 
commanded the left wing of his company, and, with a 
revolver in one hand and his sword in the other, he 
charged up the hill to the fence, on the top of which he 
leaped and, waving his sword, cried to his boys to fol- 
low him. Twice he led his men to the fence, but the 
murderous fire caused them to fall back and throw 
themselves on the ground behind an eminence, to shield 
themselves from the storm of iron hail. It was by this 



228 




<p,^,)^^'/ V - / ,4iy0 



Ii, i«ii»<' 



battery that the Ellsworth Zouaves were cut up. I 
noticed that young Gurnsey's clothes were covered with 
blood. His right-hand man was shot by his side. 
' Then,' said he, ' I was mad, and would have reached 
that battery had we not been ordered back.' 

*' Peter Welch, I am told, rushed in and took two 
prisoners and brought them off, then went back, under 
a terrible fire, and brought off some of our wounded. 
At one time, when the regiment was forced to retire 
after a charge. Colonel Jameson said to his men : ' Who 
will go with me to the rescue of the wounded?' Six 
brave fellows followed him into the very jaws of death. 

" Little can you imagine how our hearts swell to our 
brave boys for their heroic conduct in this fight." 

But the history of these brave deeds is only the his- 
tory of hundreds of others. Volumes could be filled 



229 

with heart-thrilling examples of individual heroism. 
*' Maine in the War " has been written, and we, at least, 
know these examples partially. To particularize, in so 
limited a space as these '* Stories of Maine " afford, is to 
be unjust. The aim is only to cite cases where Maine, 
thrown into the thickest of the fight, showed her mettle. 

The Fourth Maine did duty in almost all the great 
battles that were fought during its term of service. At 
Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, and Williamsburg, it rendered 
especially efficient service, as well as at Chancellorsville, 
where its commander, Major General Berry, was killed. 

The Fifth was another fighting regiment, and proved 
its valor by taking more prisoners than it ever had men 
in its ranks, — an almost unprecedented record. At the 
close of the battle in which the Union forces won Wil- 
liamsburg and Yorktown, the Seventh Maine was visited 
by General McClellan and complimented for its gallantry. 

" Soldiers of the Seventh Maine," he said, " I have 
come to thank you for your bravery and good conduct 
in the action of yesterday. On this battle plain you 
and your comrades arrested the progress of the advanc- 
ing enemy, saved the army from a disgraceful defeat, 
and turned the tide of victory in our favor. You have de- 
served well of your country and of your state ; and in 
their gratitude they will not forget to bestow upon you 
the thanks and praise so justly your due. Continue to 
show the conduct of yesterday, and the triumph of our 
cause will be speedy and sure. In recognition of your 
merit you shall hereafter bear the inscription ' Williams- 
burg ' on your colors. Soldiers, my words are feeble, 
but from the bottom of my heart I thank you ! " 



230 

With the Third Maine Regiment, commanded by Gen- 
eral O. O. Howard, originated the brilliant and laugh- 
able operation known as the Stovepipe Artillery. The 
regiment was encamped within sight of the enemy's lines, 
in Virginia. Some of the men took a piece of stovepipe 
from a church, mounted it upon wheels, and ran it up to 
the top of a hill. It was a sport that relieved a little 
the horrors of war to see the enemy open a furious 
cannonade upon the inoffensive stovepipe. 

The Third's fighting was as successful as its fooling. 
After a hard-fought battle, when the regiment was re- 
duced to one hundred and ninety-six rifles and fourteen 
officers, General Sickles said : " The little Third Maine 
saved the army to-day.'* 

The capture of Morris Island is said to have been 
largely due to the daring and skill of the Ninth Maine 
Regiment, and the finely drilled Eleventh had the honor 
of having been the first to pass and the last to leave 
the Chickahominy. 

The Fifteenth was the Aroostook regiment, and the 
men were forced to show their hardihood in the perils 
of the Mississippi swamps. In one year it lost three 
hundred and twenty-nine of its number, without being 
engaged in a battle. It had many of the hardships and 
sufferings without any of the glory of war, but its 
men showed the patient endurance which is sometimes 
the highest heroism. 

The Twelfth Maine distinguished itself by the capture 
of two batteries of six thirty-two pounders, with a stand 
of colors, a great quantity of ordnance stores, and Con- 
federate currency to the amount of eight thousand dol- 



231 

lars. The War Department ordered the captured colors 
to be retained by the regiment as a trophy of its bril- 
Hant victory. 

The heroism of the Maine soldiers in the minor bat- 
tles of the war has naturally been less widely published. 
At the battle of Brandy Station the First Maine Cavalry 
made for itself a glorious record. The cavalry had not 
been highly esteemed, but on that day it saved the brig- 
ade under Kilpatrick, and when the fight was done re- 
ceived his hearty thanks for its services. 

Brandy Station is on the Orange and Alexandria 
Railroad, which crosses the Rappahannock River about 
fifty miles southwest of Washington. It is a small 
place, about five miles from the river, and near Cul- 
peper. A fine, old-fashioned mansion, half a mile from 
the station, was the headquarters of the rebel general 
Stuart. 

In front of the house was a beautiful lawn, and be- 
hind it was woodland. A heavy force of artillery, cav- 
alry, and infantry, upon the sloping grounds, faced the 
daring riders. They pressed up the hill and along its 
brow, an irresistible force that drove the enemy before 
it, dashed at the battery, and captured it, cutting down 
such of the gunners as remained. It was the first bat- 
tle of the regiment, and the men were wild with excite- 
ment and flushed with success. A mistake was made, 
here, in not carrying off the battery ; but Colonel Douty 
planted a Union flag at the guns, and urged his men for- 
ward upon the enemy, leaving the guns unmanned. 

As the Union men rushed after the retreating foe, 
from the woods on the other side of the upland came 



232 

other Confederate troops that seized upon the guns, and 
when Colonel Douty turned from the enemy's scattered 
and flying forces, he saw another detachment of them 
manning the guns and apparently mustering in strong 
force to hold the field. 




The bugle rang out again the signal to charge, and as 
they rode back they saw the wide, sloping plain filled 
with fleeing Union troops and hotly pursuing Con- 
federates. 

A steady, deadly fire was pouring from the guns, and 
mingled with the thunder of the artillery, with the rattle 
and the roar, was the wild, piteous cry of the horses as 
their flesh was torn by the bullets. There were shouts 
of combat and shrieks of the wounded and dvinQ;. And 



233 

between these dreadful sounds came the tread of the 
horses of the flying cavalry — flying as if the day were 
lost. Again the bugle rang out, and again the battery 
was charged, — a deed of desperate courage. 

The " History of the First Maine Cavalry " thus re- 
cords it : " The last charge brought them to a point in 
the valley between two hills, west of the battery and 
directly under its guns. At this critical moment it was 
discovered that they were completely surrounded and 
cut off from all support, while the Confederates were lit- 
erally swarming on every side. The gunners on the hill 
were waiting to pour death through their devoted ranks. 
Lieutenant Colonel Smith was now in command, as 
Douty and some of the officers had been separated from 
the regiment during the hand-to-hand fight at the bat- 
tery, and he saw only one avenue of escape. The men 
were formed and moved directly toward the battery as 
if inviting attack. For a moment they dashed on, and 
when it was seen that the guns had been sighted and 
were about to be discharged, the order was given to 
swing to the right. In an instant after came the can- 
nons' roar, but not a man or a horse fell. The grape 
and canister tore along the left flank, plowing the 
ground vacated but an instant before." 

At this moment of reprieve the glistening of bayonets 
was seen on the edge of the woods, and an orderly cross- 
ing the field was hailed with the question, '* What are the 
troops in sight along the woods? " 

'* The Sixth Maine," was his answer ; and it was echoed 
along the ranks with a wild shout of joy. The danger 
was over since the Sixth Maine had come to the rescue. 



234 

The Sixth, the lumbermen's regiment, was placed on 
record by its gallant colonel as a temperance regiment 
before it reached the field. As it passed through 
Philadelphia, a halt was made near some liquor shops. 
The proprietors were requested by the colonel not to 
sell liquors to his men, but they paid no attention what- 
ever to the request. Colonel Knowles forthwith sent 
a squad of soldiers to shut up the shops, and placed a 
guard over the persistent rumsellers. He was imme- 
diately waited upon by a company of Quaker City 
fathers. " Friend Knowles," they said, " thy conduct 
meets our approval. We will back thee up if necessary." 
At Fredericksburg the Sixth made a noble record for 
itself. The supporting regiments on the right and left 
had broken under the terrific fire, and the enemy 
turned its attention to the Sixth Maine and the Fifth 
Wisconsin. 

Its entire fire was poured upon the ranks of the two 
regiments, and their destruction seemed imminent. But 
when they were expected to waver and break, there 
came, instead, a wild cheer, and a desperate rush upon 
the enemy's fortifications; and in four minutes from 
the time of attack the victory was won. The flag of 
the Sixth was the first to float from the enemy's battle- 
ments. The Tenth passed through great perils and 
hardships, being always in the thickest of the fight. In 
the valley of the Shenandoah it performed most notable 
service and showed great heroism. 

The men of the Thirteenth, Colonel Neal Dow's regi- 
ment, were among those that sufl^ered the most severely 
and showed heroic fortitude. They endured first the 



235 

almost tropical heat of Ship Island, and then were sent 
to Texas, where toilsome marches, malaria, and priva- 
tions greatly reduced their ranks. Colonel Dow himself 
suffered the horrors of a Southern prison. 

Perhaps no Maine regiment endured more of the hard- 
ships of war, while receiving none of its emoluments, 
than did the Twenty-third. Most of the time of service 
was spent in guarding Washington. A fine company of 
men, socially and intellectually, they gave themselves to 
the severe labors of digging rifle pits and redoubts, of 
performing picket duty and building barricades. 

What the perils and hardships of war were may be 
understood from the records of the gallant Twenty- 
fourth. Nine hundred strong and able-bodied men en- 
listed, and but five hundred and seventy returned, and 
yet npt one was killed in battle. This regiment served 
at the siege of Port Hudson. 

The Twenty-seventh, the York county regiment, 
showed its patriotism by remaining for the protection of 
Washington after its term of service had expired. 

The Twenty- eighth and Twenty- ninth regiments had 
their share in the fiercest battles of the war, as did also 
the Thirtieth, with an added share of terrible experience 
in the marsh lands of Louisiana. 

The Thirty-first plunged at once into the terrible 
battles of the Wilderness, and lost in one of the first 
engagements, in killed, wounded, and missing, two hun- 
dred and ninety-five men. 

The Maine Sixteenth had been left without proper 
clothing or camping outfit. The men had suffered in- 
credible hardships from exposure to the cold, from 



236 

hunger, and • from a toilsome march, when they were 
plunged into the thickest of the terrible fight at Fred- 
ericksburg. They fought with desperate courage. Of 
four hundred and fifty men only two hundred and twenty- 
four survived the battle. "Whatever honor we can 
claim in that contest," said General Burnside, ''was 
won by the Maine men." 




Battlefield at Gettysburg. 



The Twentieth won perhaps its greatest honors at 
Gettysburg, as did the Fifth Mounted Battery, which had 
before shown desperate courage in the bloodiest battles ; 
and it was a Maine regiment, the Eleventh, under Gen- 
eral Howard, that repulsed the foe and turned the tide 
of battle at that famous fight. The story of the battle 
has been told too often to warrant a repetition, but they 



237 

were unfading laurels that the sons of Maine won that 
day. It was the Twentieth Maine that chanced to be 
in line when the Southern army, flying from the defeat 
of Richmond and Petersburg, found before them the 
alternative of surrender or utter annihilation. 

So Maine may boast as her share in the great Civil 
War that she raised the first company of volunteers, and 
that to her troops the surrender of the Confederate army 
was made, — but these were small things, indeed, in com- 
parison with the years of heroic endeavor that came be- 
tween. And for one story of bravery that is told a 
hundred remain untold ; and greatest, often, was the 
heroism shown when the day was not won, and no one 
has had the heart to preserve the full details of the 
losing fight. 



XX. ANECDOTES OF THE HEROES OF 

MAINE. 

THERE is another hero of the Civil War whose 
fame should not be allowed to perish utterly. 
Major joined the Tenth Maine at Portsmouth, New- 
Hampshire, on the 6th of October, 1861, the regiment 
being then on its way to the seat of war. His previous 
career was not then known to his new comrades, but it 
was thought, from the aptitude that he showed for sol- 
diering, that he had at least smelled gunpowder and 
had probably a war record. He followed Captain 
Emerson, of Company H, into the car, and was imme- 
diately adopted by that company, and they bestowed 
upon him his title " Major." He was a Newfoundland 
crossbreed dog, black, and weigliing nearly one hun- 
dred and ten pounds. 

From that October night when he joined Company 
H, he shared all its vicissitudes, sometimes showing- 
more than human patience and endurance, and an intel- 
ligence that almost seemed to comprehend the motives 
and necessities of army movements, until the 8th of May, 
1863, when the regiment was mustered out of service. 

Major's earliest service as a soldier consisted of picket 

duty at the Relay House, where the regiment was first 

stationed. No matter where his company might be 

238 



^39 



stationed, he was always among the most advanced of 
the pickets, and was fiercest when a Confederate dog 
attempted to cross the Hne. 

He was the recipient of much attention from the whole 
regiment and from outsiders. When rations were scan- 
tiest. Major never lacked his full share with the rest ; 
and when Thanksgiving deli- _-. - 
cacies from home reached . ^■, • , , 

the regiment he feasted 
upon the best. But 
no cajoling and no 
dainties would induce 
Major to recognize or 
be friendly to a per- 
son belonging to any 
other company than 
his own. 

Unlimited was hisde- 
votion to Company H, 
but he bore himself with 
haughty reserve to the world 
outside. Only once did he unbend from his severe ex- 
clusiveness, and that was in a very sore strait. During 
General Banks's retreat from Winchester, Major was so 
crippled by the long march that he could hardly walk. 
Lono- marches had often fallen to the lot of the Tenth, 
but there were limits even to Major's powers of endur- 
ance. He lagged behind and came near being taken 
prisoner, the enemy making a cowardly and cruel attempt 
to " cut off his rear." 

When he had been two days within the rebel lines, 







240 

Major met a member of Company F, in his own regi- 
ment. He had never before condescended to acknowl- 
edge as acquaintances the members of Company F ; but 
he recognized their superiority to Confederates, and fol- 
lowed the soldier of Company F, and succeeded in 
reaching the camp in safety. He then proceeded to 
seek out his own company, and declined the acquaint- 
ance of any other, as before. 

Major was never found in the rear ranks, and at An- 
tietam and Cedar Mountain he kept his place through 
all the charges in advance of the front ranks. 

Major had one reckless habit which placed his life in 
unnecessary jeopardy and impaired his usefulness. When 
the regiment was stationed upon the railroads he would 
chase the trains. He would dash madly after them, 
barking loud enough to drown the engine's shriek. He 
evidently regarded a railroad train as the worst of Con- 
federate foes. At length he was struck by an engine 
and thrown several feet, and was so seriously injured 
that it was feared he could not recover. This finally 
convinced Major that it was no part of a soldier's duty 
to try to stop a train. 

It was learned that, before he joined the Tenth, Major 
had served out a three months' enlistment with the First 
New Hampshire Regiment and been slightly wounded 
in the battle of Bull Run. He returned home, but evi- 
dently had a soldier's heart, and, soon tired of the 
monotony of private life, he seized the first opportunity 
that offered to return to the field. When Captain 
Emerson retired from the command of the company, he 
presented the dog to Lieutenant Granville Blake. 



241 

A fine collar was provided for Major, on which was 
engraved the leaf indicative of the dog's rank, and the* 
names of the battles in which he had been engaged. 
Lieutenant Blake took Major home to Auburn with him, 
and he remained there until his master was commis- 
sioned captain of Company H, Twenty-ninth Maine, 
when he returned to the army, and identified himself 
with this company as he had done with the first. 

At Mansfield, Louisiana, on- the 8th of April, 1864, 
Major found his last battlefield. A Confederate musket 
ball missed a higher aim, and found its way to the dog 
hero's heart. He died a soldier's death, truly honored 
and lamented. 

Perhaps it will not be disrespectful to Major's faith- 
fully treasured memory to add to this brief chronicle of 
his career a few of the humorous happenings that cheered 
the toils and hardships of the " boys" he loved. 

There were valiant sons of Erin from Maine among 
the boys, and one of them was asked by another 
Maine man to help him from the field after a battle. 
He had the proverbial warm heart of Erin's sons, and 
although the bullets came whizzing upon them, he 
helped him to mount and strapped him to his horse, 
afterwards mounting his own and riding on before. 
As they rode, the head of the injured man was shot off ; 
but Pat rode on, all unaware of the fatality. When 
they arrived at the doctor's quarters, Pat explained that 
he had brought the man to have his leg dressed. " But 
his head is off ! " cried the doctor. " The bloody liar! " 
exclaimed Pat, looking behind him for the first time; 
" he told me he was only shot in the leg! " 

STO. OF MAINE — 16 



242 



In tlie Tennessee mountains a company of soldiers 
came upon an old woman contentedly smoking on her 
cabin doorstep. " Secesh? " queried one of the soldiers, 
as they stopped for a drink of water. The old woman 

slowly and decidedly shook 
her head. " You 

must be Union, 
then," he per- 
sisted, insomesur- 
prise. The same 
slow and deliber- 
ate shake of the 
head was her re- 
sponse. "I'm a 
Baptist," she said, in a 
slow drawl. " I've al- 
ways been aBaptist, and 
I 'low I'll stick to it." 
There was a colonel 
of the First Maine Cavalry who was arbitrary and exact- 
ing, and not at all a favorite with either officers or men, 
whom he expected to rule as he had been accustomed 
to rule his backwoodsmen and river drivers. 

When the regiment was ordered to the front, the offi- 
cers came to the conclusion that war and the colonel to- 
gether would be more than they could endure, and they 
waited upon the governor and told him that the}^ should 
resign unless the colonel was removed. Of course the 
colonel was invited to hand in his resignation, and did 
so. Before this happened, he had one day placed the 
entire band in the guardhouse for some slight breach 




243 



of military decorum. The band determined upon re- 



venge. 



The next Sunday the regiment was ordered out for 
church. On such occasions the coJonel Hked to make 
a great display. He had secured a hall in the city, and 
every Sunday services were held there. The men 
had fine overcoats and new uniforms, with top-boots 
and gloves. The colonel had given orders that the 
band should play while marching by the statehouse, 
and again as they approached the hall. On this 
occasion the first part of the order was carried out. 
Martial strains thrilled the hearts of all listeners, and 
drew eager throngs to gaze upon the splendor of the 
troops. But in dead silence they marched toward the 
hall. In great wrath the colonel sent an orderly for- 
w^ard to learn the cause of this disobedience of his order. 
The band was frozen up! That was the answer which 
the band orderly gave, and it was repeated to the colo- 
nel. He swore like a trooper, and when the hall was 
reached and the soldiers and the large congregation were 
seated, he ordered the band to go to the stove, thaw out 
their instruments, and " play that tune," which they did, 
while the chaplain and the congregation waited and 
looked on, the former struggling for a becoming serious- 
ness, the latter with more or less open merriment. 

Later, during the war, the colonel, showing a forgiv- 
ing spirit, visited the regiment, and was tendered a sere- 
nade by the band, which played two tunes. When they 
had finished, the former colonel made them a speech, in 
which he said, among other pleasant things: "It is my 
opinion that the climate hereabouts is much better for 



244 

your business than that of Augusta, as I observe you 
can here play two tunes without freezing up! " The 
boys gave three cheers, while the band responded with 
the then new and popular air, " Right You Are, Old 
Man." 

While the Tenth Regiment was in Portland, in 1861, 
there was difficulty in keeping the men together, and a 
squad was kept constantly on the lookout for stragglers. 
One of these parties came upon a countryman who, for 
purposes of comfort or adornment, had put on a part 
of the uniform of the old First Regiment. He was im- 
mediately seized and dragged off, although he protested 
lustily that he was not a soldier. He begged to be al- 
lowed to sell his load of wood and take care of his 
cattle, but his inexorable captors dragged him off to 
camp, leaving an officer in charge of his team ; and it 
was a long time before he succeeded in proving that 
he did not " belong to the show." While those who 
did not belong were sometimes seized in this way, 
there was, now and then, one who would escape across 
the lines and be heard from no more. One such who 
returned and demanded a pension was greeted by his 
captain with this very pertinent remark : " If I were 
such a coward as you, I should be ashamed to look a 
pine tree in the face! " 



i 




XXL THE EMMA AND THE "LEAPING 

TARANTULA." 



THE Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes, was a 
Confederate cruiser which, during the Civil War, 
carried on the piratical business of seizing American 
vessels hailing from the North, in whatever waters she 
found them. She was a handsome, rakish craft, painted 
black, and of a racing speed. Semmes, a reckless ad- 
venturer, was proud of his ship, and boasted that no 
vessel could escape the " Leaping Tarantula," as he called 
it. He was, in fact, so daring and so successful in his 
raids that his ship became a haunting terror to Northern 
merchantmen carrying their cargoes to foreign ports. 

The Eiiuna, a stanch Maine vessel, commanded by her 
owner, Captain Jordan, was at Singapore, witli a cargo of 
coal, when a report was spread abroad that the '' Scourge 
of the Seas," which was the name the seafaring folk gave 
to the Alabama, had been seen in those waters; more- 
over, that she had seemed to be upon the Emma's track. 

245 



246 

Captain Jordan remained at Singapore a few days, 
and discharged a part of his coal. Then lie sailed for 
Bombay, and left there the remainder of his cargo. Be- 
fore leaving Bombay he also took a certain wise pre- 
caution, becoming in the master of a ship that might fall 
into the clutches of the "Tarantula." He had heard at 
Bombay that the Alabama had followed him to Singa- 
pore and had there seized and carried away some of the 
coal that he had left. 

Now, the track of the Finiua lay along the Malabar 
coast; but Captain Jordan, knowing that the Alabama 
was likely to lie in wait there, shaped his. course far out 
to sea. A close watch was kept, but although there were 
many steamers in those waters, there was no black, rakish 
Confederate cruiser to be seen. He had begun to con- 
gratulate himself on his safety, when, one morning, what 
was thought to be an English steamer appeared very near 
the Emma, under full sail. It was scarcely daylight when 
she was sighted by the Yankee vessel. When the sun 
rose she was only half a mile away, and she ran up the 
American flag. 

That was better yet : the stranger was a countryman 
and friend, thought the Yankees. Aloft went the stars 
and stripes from the Emma, in response. As the brilliant 
tropical sunlight fell upon her, it showed her to be a 
handsome, jaunty steamer, probably of American build. 
The captain and crew of the Emma were pleased and 
proud to meet a fine American steamer in the far-ofT 
foreign seas. 

The captain called his wife to come and see her, but 
Mrs. Jordan was not yet ready to leave the cabin. The 



247 

roar of a gun came from the stranger — the port gun to 
windward. That was a signal to " heave to," and the 
Yankee crew obeyed it, doubtful as to what it might 
mean. When this was done, a boat was lowered from 
the strange steamer. It came swiftly and steadily over 
the smooth sea, and as Captain Jordan surveyed it 
through his glass, a slow-creeping fear leaped suddenly 
into certainty. 

He called down to his wife in the cabin: " Pack up 
your things as quick as you can, and be ready to go! 
The ' Tarantula' has got her claws upon us!" 

He had been deceived by the appearance of the 
steamer, but he knew that the lapstreak boat now near- 
ing them was of English build and belonged to no 
steamer that had a right to hoist the stars and stripes. 

There was not a moment to lose. The rowboat was 
manned by a powerful crew and was almost upon them ; 
and, like a crouching beast of prey, the black ship lay 
just ahead. 

Mrs. Jordan gathered together her treasures with 
trembling hands. The cozy little cabin, her home for 
many months, would soon be invaded by the pirate 
crew. The rowboat came alongside, and an officer 
mounted to the deck of the Emma. The message that 
he delivered was brief and businesslike : 

" You are commanded by Captain Semmes of the 
Alabama to take your papers and go on board his ship 
at once." 

Captain Jordan obeyed, since there was, clearly, 
nothing else to be done. The Emma was the helpless 
prey of the armed pirate ship. Captain Semmes received 



248 

him with none of the decent courtesy due to a con- 
quered foe. He was in especially bad humor when he 
learned that the Emma carried no freight, as he had 
expected to capture a fine cargo. 

He assured Captain Jordan that in twenty minutes he 
should burn the Emma. In that time the captain might 
bring off his wife and his crew, if he could. He would 
be so magnanimous as to allow him one trunk of cloth- 
ing, and the sailors one bag each. 

The whole crew of the Alabama, nearly a hundred 
and fifty men, were let loose upon the Emma, to plun- 
der and destroy at their will. They made a carousal of 
their opportunity, and drank all the liquor they could 
find. 

They dressed themselves in Mrs. Jordan's clothing, and 
they crowded into the cabin and sang vulgar songs to 
the accompaniment of a wild jargon on the parlor organ, 
which had hitherto been sacred, in all the Emma s 
voyages, to Sunday evening hymns. 

Their orgy was the more reckless because of their 
disappointment and disgust at finding no money. Cap- 
tain Jordan had, most fortunately, sent home from 
Bombay all his cash, amounting to over twenty thousand 
dollars ; but when he told them this they refused to be- 
lieve it, and pulled up the ship's planks and overhauled 
the ballast in search of it. 

Maddened by the liquor and the disappointment, they 
seemed at length to be seized with a mania of destruc- 
tion. They cut and hacked the cabin furnishings and 
smashed the dishes. With these diversions thrown in, 
it took all day to remove the valuable ship's stores to 



249 



the Alabama, and the ship was not abandoned and fired 
until evening. 

Captain Jordan, his wife, and the crew had been re- 
moved to the Alabama. Before the last of the Ala- 
bama's crew left, the broken furniture was piled up in 
the cabin and fired, and then a match was applied to the 
forward part of the ship. 

There was a dead calm that night, and the Alabama 
had to lay to, with the burning vessel close at her 
stern. Captain Jordan 
and his wife watched, 
through the night, 
the slow destruction 
of their ship. 

At first there 
were only volumes 
of smoke, so black 
and heavy as to hang 
like a pall over the 
sea, through which, 
now and then, there 
shot a fork of light- 
ninglike flame. 

Thencameaburst 
of flame through the 
cabin woodwork, 
and this made asud- 
den swift flight to the rig- 
ging. The tropic sun had 

beaten upon this for many days, and the tar was in a 
highly inflammable condition. Outlined upon the black 




250 

smoke was, for a moment, a dazzling display of fire- 
works. The small ropes were a network of flame. It 
was a wonderful spectacle, but those who loved the 
Emma saw it through their tears. 

When the vessel threw her head into the air, hung 
for a moment, like a living thing that dies reluctantly, 
and was then sucked down into the mighty deep, there 
was a long sigh of relief that the agony was over, 

Semmes did not intend to be burdened long with his 
prisoners. As soon as they came within reach of land, he 
sent them ashore in boats. It was a barren land where 
they were left ; the shore was inhabited by a few uncivil- 
ized natives, and there was a rampart of dreary black hills 
in the background. Captain Jordan begged to be taken 
to a port from which it would be possible to make his 
way home, or, at least, not to be left beyond the bounds 
of civilization ; but all in vain. " We want to get rid of 
you as soon as possible," was Semmes's reply. " You 
must make ready to go ashore." 

Through a rough and stormy sea the Alabama s cap- 
tives were rowed to the barren shore, where they were 
deserted. ^Yv^ Alabama waited only for her boats, which 
could not return until the ebb tide, and then the aban- 
doned victims of the ** Scourge of the Seas" saw^ her 
disappear, under steam and full sail, down the horizon. 

Captain Jordan and his companions found it difficult 
to make the natives understand their signs, but they were 
treated by them with a kindness which was strongly in 
contrast with the barbarity of the pirate crew ; and when 
at length they succeeded in making the savages com- 
prehend their desire to get to a distant port, they will- 



^5i 

ingly took them in their canoes a distance of a hundred 
and fifty miles, a difficult and dangerous voyage. 

They made a port where it was possible to make 
connections with Bombay, and in due time they reached 
that city in safety. There they obtained money and 
made their way to Europe, and thence safely home to 
America. 



XXII. SOME OF MAINE'S RESOURCES. 

FOR a hundred and thirty years Maine was a sort of 
adopted daughter of Massachusetts, and, devastated 
as she was by the long and bloody French and Indian wars, 
she doubtless stood in need of such protection as Mas- 
sachusetts could and did bestow upon her. But there 
were, nevertheless, great disadvantages in this depend- 
ence. Massachusetts, although in general kind and con- 
siderate, was sometimes more domineering and more 
selfish than anybody but a bad stepmother can be. 
The independence which she grudgingly granted might 
have been attained much earlier but for Maine's inward 
dissensions. 

The question of separation had become a party 
issue, the Republicans contending for independence, the 
Federalists adhering to Massachusetts. The changes 
of political nomenclature are confusing, and unusually 
so in this case, where one of the parties adopted the 
name of its original opponents. It was in reality the 
nationalists who came to be called Federalists. They 
held to the unity of the nation, as opposed to a con- 
federacy. The old federals, supporters of the idea of 
the confederation, were afterwards, with Jefferson for 
leader, known as Republicans, later as Jeffersonian 

Democrats, finally simply as Democrats. 

252 



253 



In 1820 the point was carried and the separation 
made. The connection had been carried on, throucjh 
all the years of pioneer struggle, with more or less of 
good will and family affection, and it was severed in 
mutual friendship and respect. 

The new state of Maine had a population of nearly 
three hundred thousand, and both wealth and population 
immediately increased. She has not steadily increased in 
population. Lumber and shipping, her great sources of 
income in the past, have declined, and yet her increase 
in wealth has gone steadily on. The place of the lum- 
bering interest was taken by the comparatively new 




industry of cotton manufacture. Iron-working, boot- 
and shoemaking, flouring mills, woolen factories, and 



254 

leather-making came instead of the building of ships. 
And more recently than these there has come, espe- 
cially in the Aroostook highlands, a skilled husbandry, 
which has sometimes been thought Maine's great and 
fatal lack. 

It was not nature's churlishness, not even the restless 
spirit of youth and the unaccountable human instinct 
that makes the West draw like a magnet, that left her 
such a painful legacy of untamed woodland and aban- 
doned farms; it was not a lack of energy — the people 
of Maine have never been accused of being lazy ; but, 
rather, the failure to apply to agriculture the skill and 
enterprise, the fertility of resource, necessary to success 
in any other calling. 

More than fifty years ago the " hermit of the A roostook " 
saw the resources of that fertile and beautiful region 
and prophesied of its future. The " American Whig 
Review" of September, 1847, tells of a traveler on his 
way down the St. John to New Brunswick, who stops 
for a night, having heard that the Aroostook is " fa- 
mous for salmon and scenery." He accepts the hospi- 
tality of a hermit who has lived alone, for years, near a 
beautiful waterfall on the river. "The valley is one of 
the most beautiful and luxuriant in the world," says the 
hermit, who has once been a traveler and lived among 
men ; " the only thing against it is that nearly five 
miles of its outlet belongs to the English government. 
The Aroostook River is one of the most important 
branches of the St. John. Its general course is easterly, 
but it is exceedingly serpentine, and, according to some 
of your best surveyors, drains upward of a million acres 



255 

of the best soil in Maine. Above my place there is 
scarcely a spot that might not be navigated by a small 
steamboat, and I believe the time is not far distant when 
your enterprising Yankees will have a score of boats 
here, carrying their grain to market. Before that time 
you must build a canal or a railroad around my beauti- 
ful waterfall. 

" An extensive lumbering business is now carried on 
in the valley, but its future prosperity must depend upon 




its agriculture. Already are the river banks dotted with 
well-cultivated farms, and every year is adding to their 
number. The soil is rich and alluvial; the staple crop 
is w^heat. Grasses flourish here, and the Aroostook 
farmer w^ill yet send to market immense quantities of 
cattle. The climate here is not so severe as has been 



256 

supposed. The heavy snowfall prevents the ground 
from freezing to a great depth." 

This was written ten years after the famous Aroostook 
War, and five years after the settlement of the boundary 
question by the Ashburton treaty. The English had 
previously claimed much more than the five miles of the 
river's outlet which disturbed the hermit's mind. 



XXIII. THE ''AROOSTOOK WAR." 

BY the treaty of 1783, which closed the Revolution- 
ary War, one half of the river St. John belonged to 
Maine. But at the end of the War of 18 12 Great Britain 
claimed both banks. The town of Madawaska, an Amer- 
ican settlement of log huts, extended for nearly twenty 
miles along the eastern bank of the river. The inhabitants 
were chiefly of French descent, refugees from Acadia 
when that place came into possession of the British. 

The English authorities in the vicinity remonstrated 
against the sending of a representative from this town 
to the legislature of Maine, which they claimed as Eng- 
lish territory, and tried by force of arms to prevent it. 
In June, 1837, an agent sent by Congress to Madawaska 
to take the census and to distribute certain surplus 
money which had accumulated in the United States 
Treasurv was arrested bv a British constable. 

The prisoner was carried to the nearest English shire 
town ; but the sherifT there regarded the proceeding as 
high-handed and reckless, and refused to receive the 
prisoner, who returned to Madawaska and continued to 
take the census and distribute the money. 

When Governor Harvey of New Brunswick heard of 
the matter, he ordered the agent to be rearrested and 
lodged in Fredericton jail, on the ground that the dis- 

STO. OF MAINE— 17 257 



258 

tribution of money was a bribe to the people to remain 
loyal to the United States. There was an outburst of 
indignation, all over Maine. Governor Dunlap issued an 
order announcing that the state had been invaded by a 
foreign power, and the militia was called upon to hold 
itself in readiness for active service. There was a great 
mustering of forces on both sides and a wild excitement, 
which was soon allayed by the liberation of the impris- 
oned agent in response to a message from President Van 
Buren. Both parties agreed to refer the matter to arbi- 
tration ; and so- there was no Madawaska war. 

But the boundary question had not been settled. 
After the War of 1812 it had been referred to King 
William of the Netherlands, who decided it in a way 
that was satisfactory to no one and much displeased 
the people of Maine. The United States government, 
dreading war, offered Maine a million acres of land in 
Michigan in exchange for the territory that she would 
lose. But it was her Aroostook that Maine wanted, and 
not land in far-away Michigan. So she declined the 
offer, and further negotiations were attempted, too long 
and too tiresome to relate. 

The territory in dispute came to be regarded as no- 
man's land, and was the prey of reckless plunderers. 
Much of its most valuable lumber was taken away. 
The robbery was carried to such an extent that the 
state legislature, in secret session, ordered a force 
raised of two hundred volunteers to drive oft' the tres- 
passers and destroy their camps. 

A Bangor company marched to Masardis (then Town- 
ship No. 10), and easily captured the lumbermen and 



259 

their teams. But as they advanced to the mouth of the 
Little Madavvaska, the captain of the company, and 
several of his men, were taken prisoners and carried off 
in a sleigh to Fredericton jail. Then three hundred 
of the trespassers armed themselves and bade defiance 
to the Yankees. And Governor Harvey of New Bruns- 
wick ordered out a thousand militiamen to protect what 
he declared was British territory, at the same time send- 
ing a communication to the governor of Maine, at 
Augusta, demanding the recall of the American troops 
from the Aroostook, ** over which territory he was 
authorized to hold exclusive Jurisdiction, by military 
force if necessary." 

A great wave of indignation swept over the state of 
Maine. A draft of ten thousand men from the militia 
was made, and they were ordered to be ready for im- 
mediate action, and eight hundred thousand dollars was 
appropriated for the protection of the public lands. 
Within a week ten thousand American soldiers were 
either in Aroostook county or on the march there. It 
was midwinter and bitterly cold, and they were strik- 
ing and picturesque in red shirts and pea-green jackets 
above their regular uniforms. A white background of 
unbroken snow set off the gay habiliments of these 
Aroostook soldiers, as they " fared forth to war." 

Congress was aroused to the passing of a bill that 
authorized the President to raise fifty thousand troops 
for the support of Maine— provided that the governor 
of New Brunswick fulfilled his threat— and appropriated 
ten million dollars to meet the expense. 

General Scott and his staff were sent to Augusta, 



26o 

with the message that he was " especiahy charged to 
maintain the peace and safety of the entire northern 
and eastern frontiers." 

Supported by a great force of troops, General Scott 
was in a position to make peace, if that were possible, 
and his earnest efforts were at length successful. Gov- 
ernor Harvey of New Brunswick pledged himself that, 
since negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the 
boundary question were in progress, he would not take 
military possession of the territory. 

Governor Fairfield of Maine, on the other hand, prom- 
ised that he would not, without further instructions, dis- 
turb any of New Brunswick's Madawaska settlements. 
This brought peace for the time, and the Aroostook 
region, which had hitherto formed a part of Washington 
and Penobscot counties, was constituted a county by 
itself, under its original name. Two years later the 
question was definitely and amicably settled under the 
agency of Lord Ashburton, then British ambassador to 
to the United States. A considerable tract of land, but 
of little value except to Great Britain, because of the 
need of free communication between her provinces of 
New Brunswick and Canada, was surrendered by Maine. 
The United States received, in return, land of much 
greater value on the borders of the Great Lakes; and 
Congress voted to Maine one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars for the surrender. 

So what has been called ** the bloodless Aroostook 
War," and laughed at a little, sometimes, as quite un- 
necessary and somewhat farcical, was no war at all, but 
a determined and altogether self-respectful manifesta- 



26l 

tion on the part of Maine that she was " fit for the fight," 
if she were forced into it for the protection of her rights. 
This rich and alluvial Aroostook has become the home 
of a Swedish colony. As the Northmen were the first, 
so the Swedes are the latest voyagers to Maine. With 
industry and enterprise they are more than fulfilling the 
hermit's prophecies for the Aroostook's future in the way 
of agriculture. From the vast forests of that region 
came the lumber for the fine ships, in the days when 
Maine was known as the builder of some that were equal 
to anv in the world. 



XXIV. THE SHIPS OF MAINE. 

THE Flying Scud, acknowledged to be the fastest 
clipper the world has ever seen, was a Maine vessel. 
On one day — and this performance is recorded in the 
government office at Washington — slie made nearly five 
hundred miles, a speed that almost matches that of 
an Atlantic " greyhound " of this day. The Scud was 
built at Damariscotta, by Metcalf & Co., in 1859 or i860, 
and was intended for the tea trade, at a time when it 
meant a small fortune to bring to port the first of the 
new crop. 

The Dash was built at Porters Landing, by the Porter 
brothers, John and Seward, merchants doing business 
ni Portland. The record of this little craft was, as her 
papers remain to show, one which even fancy has not 
improved upon, although vessels of this character have 
been a favorite with novelists. The Ai'iel of Cooper 
was not the equal of this Maine craft. The DasJi was 
unique in her inception. At that time the modern plan 
of drafting vessels was practically unknown, and the 
solid model of to-day was not dreamed of. The way 
they built vessels then was simply to lay a keel, set up 
a stem and sternpost, and fill in between with frames, 
shaping the hull by the eye as the work progressed. 

Of course the two sides of the vessel were seldom of 

262 



263 



exactly the same shape, so that a vessel would often sail 
faster on one tack than she would on the other. But it 
was years before the shipbuilders adopted a more exact 
plan. However, the builders of the Dash meant to have 
a vessel that could show the highest rate of speed. They 
knew that a vessel that was to run the gantlet of Eng- 
lish war ships must be a " flier," and they went to work to 
build one. They began with a model, the first ship's model 
that Maine ever knew. It was not like the solid models 
by which ships are built nowadays. It was the skele- 
ton of half a vessel, made by nailing upon a back- 
board pieces of wood cut to represent halves of frames, 
and tacking rib-bands of wood upon them. These they 
trimmed and cut until the lines of the hull were perfected 
and what seemed to be the required shape for speed had 
been secured, and then they laid the keel. 

Only a few rotten piles now remain of the wharf where 
the DasJi was launched; the yard where so many fine 




Model of the Dash. 

vessels were built has long since been overrun by grass; 
but this rough model of the DasJi has been carefully pre- 
served as an heirloom, and is now in the possession of 
the namesake of one of these builders. 

This model, which was in the Maine exhibit at the 



264 

World's Fair, shows that the sharp floor Hnes of the 
modern yacht are not of recent origin. This vessel, 
built in 181 2, might easily be mistaken for one of the 
Burgess class, but for its almost perpendicular sternpost. 
The bow is sharp and thin, the run begins amidships, and 
all the floor timbers are at an angle much sharper than 
those of any merchant craft of to-day. 

The DasJi was not originally designed for a privateer. 
But for years both English and French vessels had 
troubled the Americans, and when the embargo was 
ordered no ordinary craft could venture to sea. Ships 
lay dismantled at the wharfs, and the merchant marine 
of the United States was literally paralyzed. West 
India products naturally sold at exorbitant prices, and 
immense profits were to be made out of risky voyages. 
So, when war was declared, the Porters built the Dash, to 
operate much like the blockade runners of our Civil War. 

The United States was then practically without a navy, 
but five craft that could be properly classed as fighting 
ships being then in existence ; while England had more 
than eighty vessels regularly cruising in these waters, 
and sometimes showed more than a hundred sail in the 
North Atlantic. 

The superiority of American ships and the skill of the 
American sailor had already been proved, and Yankee 
confidence felt equal to the emergency. The Dash was 
rigged as a topsail schooner, a style never seen in these 
days. She slipped down to Santo Domingo unobserved, 
disposed of a cargo at good prices, loaded with coffee, 
and was well on her way home when she was sighted 
by a British man-of-war, which sent her a cannon-ball 



265 

invitation to come about and await the pleasure of his 
Majesty's representative. 

The captain simply piled on canvas, threw overboard 
enough of the cargo to let his little schooner take her 
racing form, and took not French, but Yankee leave of 
the Englishman. 

The strain to the DasJi nearly took out her foremast. 
Her master had discovered that a little alteration would 
improve her sailing qualities, so a heavier spar was put 
in the place of the injured foremast, and square sails w^ere 
added, making the Dash a hermaphrodite brig. A tre- 
mendous spread of light sails was given her, and then 
she was ready to get aw^ay from anything that John Bull 
was likely to send across the sea. The Dash had no 
sheathing ; copper was too costly ; but to prexent the 
bottom from becoming foul, she w^as given a coating of 
tallow and soap just before she sailed, — which was good 
while it lasted. 

She was chased by war vessels on her second \oyage, 
one of them a seventy-four-gun ship, but sailed away from 
them ; although once, at a pinch, she was forced to sacri- 
fice her two bow^ guns and part of her deck load. 

So far the Dash's duty had been only to get away 
from her enemies, but now^ tlie fighting fever was upon 
the American sailors. It had been decided that it was 
better fun to take cargoes out of the enemy's ships than 
to run aw^ay from them, and cheaper than to purchase 
cargoes in ports. And so the little Dash was fitted out 
as a privateer. Two eighteen-pounders took the place 
of her small broadside guns; the "long tom," which 
was mounted amidships, was retained. 



266 

With a larger crew she started out, determined to 
capture any British merchantman that was sighted. 
But the first vessel she met was a man-of-war, and 
she was obliged to resort to her old trick of running. 
The next was a cruiser of about her own size, which 
she vanquished, carrying a fine cargo to port. Then 
she encountered the armed British ship Lacedccinonian 
and captured her, together with the American sloop 
which she was carrying off in triumph. A little later, 
being chased by a frigate and a schooner, she out- 
sailed the frigate and whipped the schooner. Her cap- 
tain at that time was William Cammett, a man whose 
merits President Lincoln long afterwards recognized 
by making him inspector of customs at Portland. The 
Dash went on taking cargoes and prizes, until she was 
the pride of Portland and the detestation of the British 
men-of-war, who could no more catch her than they 
could catch a will-o'-the-wisp. 

She was placed under the command of Captain John 
Porter, a young brother of the owners, who was only 
twenty-four years old, but had already made a record on 
the quarter-deck. Within a w^eek from the time he left 
port he had recovered the American ^nwdiit^v Armistice, 
which had just been taken by the English frigate Pac- 
tolas, and in another week had added two brigs and a 
sloop to his list of prizes. In the space of three months 
he sent home six prizes. 

Under Captain Porter's command the Dash reached 
the height of her fame. She had never known a defeat, 
had never even been injured by an enemy's shot, and it 
was claimed that she had not her equal in speed. It 



26'] 

was esteemed a high honor to belong to her crew, and 
there was great competition for the privilege. In the 
middle of January, 1815, the Dash set out upon her last 
cruise. 

The crew were unaware that a treaty of peace had 
been signed between Great Britain and the United States, 
and were eager for more glory and more prize money. 
The light canvas was crowded upon the tall, tapering 
masts, and the rakish craft was dashing up and down the 
harbor, but had to wait for the coming of the captain, 
who was taking lea\'e of his young wife. A signal gun 
had summoned him, but he waited for a second, as if 
with a presentiment of the long parting. 

What little more is known of the DasJi is told bv the 
crew of the CJiamplain, a new privateer which had 
waited in the harbor to try her speed against that of 
the Portland champion on an outward cruise. 

Leaving the harbor together, the two ships took a 
southerly course. Gradually the Dash drew away to 
the front, and at the close of the next day was far ahead. 
A gale came on, and the last seen of the DasJi she was 
shooting away into driving clouds of snow, which soon 
hid her from sight. 

The master of the CJiamplain altered his course, 
through fear of the Georges Shoals, and rode the gale 
safely ; but the DasJi was never heard from again. It 
is probable that Captain Porter failed to estimate his 
speed correctly and was upon the shoals before he sus- 
pected danger. 

For months and even years those whose loved ones 
had gone out in the Dash refused to believe them lost. 



268 



But never a piece of wreckage reached the shore, no 
floating spar or spHntered boat ever appeared to offer its 
mute testimon)^ The vessel had as completely disap- 
peared as if she had been one of her own cannon balls 
dropped into the sea, and only time-stained records of 
her successful voyages remain, with the ancient model, 
as mementos of the famous Yankee privateer. 

Any one who wishes to see the Dash's record can 
find the ancient papers at the Portland customhouse ; 
and the record is indeed a proud one. 

The largest and most powerful ocean towboats ever 
built were made by the Morse Towage Company, at Bath. 




It was proved that these boats were stanch enougli for 
any service, and of a remarkable speed for their build, 
when the R. M. Morse, the first one built, pursued the 
Leary raft in a northeasterly gale that drove almost 



269 

everything else to shelter. Another large vessel built 
at Bath was the barge Independent, carrying a cargo of 
five thousand tons, the largest of its kind ever con- 
structed. 

The fishing vessels built in Maine have often proved, 
at the dangerous Banks, their superiority to all others. 

The Oeean CJiief, built at Thomaston by C. C. Mor- 
ton & Co., was a half -clipper intended to prove that a 
vessel may have cargo capacity and fleetness too, and 
she was a great success. The Governor Robie, built at 
Bath by William Rogers, not many years ago, was of the 
best oak, and her experience has been regarded as a proof 
of the superiority of wooden vessels over iron ones. She 
weathered a three days' storm on the rocks (ofif Cape 
Elizabeth, where an iron ship would ine\itably have 
gone to pieces. 

The Gold Hnnter, built at Brewer, was the stanch ship 
that was first to " round the Horn " carrying miners 
bound for the California gold fields. She had been built 
for other things, but just before the day set for her 
launching the news of the great gold discoveries on the 
Pacific coast reached Bangor. Immediately the ship 
carpenters were set to work to divide off httle state- 
rooms between her decks, and soon she was ready to 
take as passengers a hundred and thirty-two men, the 
first of the famous forty-niners. 

Maine's ancient glory as a builder of ships may never 
return to her, although, while her great river leads from 
almost unlimited tracts of primeval forest straight to the 
sea, "the road of the bold," we need not despair of it. 
Even her cotton and iron manufactures may fail, but 



270 

while she has her rocks and her cold — the best climate 
possible for the formation of ice of commercial value — 
we may hope that she will yet call home her enterprising 
sons who have strayed away from her, and take her place 
in the foremost rank of wealth-producing states, as she 
now ranks among the first in the production of many 
things that are better than wealth. 



XXV. MAINE'S FAMOUS HUMORIST. 



M 



^^ 



AINE'S distinguished sons are the distinguished 
sons of the nation; their names are known to every 
boy and girl in the country. Hamhn, Fessenden, Mor- 
rill, Washburn, Clifford, Hale, Frye, Reed, Milliken, 
and Boutelle, — every one in the country knows enough 
of their history to know that Maine claims them ; 
Chief Justice Fuller, too, r 
and Naval ' Secretary 

Long. That General O. P ■ 

O. Howard, the military 
hero, is a son of Maine 
has been published far 
and wide, and that Blaine 
adopted the state as his 
home and reflected upon 
her all the glory of his 
mature years. And who 
does not know her roll 
of celebrated authors — 
Longfellow, the Ab- 
botts, Miss Jewett, Mrs. 
Spofford, and many others whose names occur to every 
one? She claims even Hawthorne as a graduate of 
Bowdoin College and a sometime resident, and we have 

271 




General O. O. Howard. 



272 




Longfellow. 



all been told that Mrs. Stowe wrote '* Uncle Tom's Cab- 
in " under the shadow of Bowdoin's walls. 

But with her long roll of 
honor — to which are added 
sculptors and painters of noble 
repute — Maine has almost for- 
gotten, or has allowed others 
to forget, her claim to the 
greatest wit of his time, " Ar- 
temus Ward." His genuine 
and spontaneous humor sa- 
vored richly of the Maine soil, 
and yet, strangely, it found its 
highest appreciation in Eng- 
land. At home, in Maine, 
they seemed always a little chary of acknowledging how 
funny Artemus really was. A quick wit is a common 
inheritance, even in far-away rural regions of Maine. 
The deacon who beats all the " city fellows" at check- 
ers has also a quaint and droll crispness of speech which 
his serious views of life are allowed to modify only on 
serious occasions. And the reckless, loitering urchin, 
who knows where the trout bite better than he knows 
the way to school, will astonish you with keen views on 
important points and with the incisive wdt with which 
he expresses them. 

There is undoubtedly only one Artemus, but he 
may have been, nevertheless, only the consummate 
development of a type familiar at home and conse- 
quently less highly valued there than abroad. Moreover, 
his humor depended somewhat upon bad spelling, a sort 



273 

of wit which degenerates so easily into vapidity or coarse- 
ness that it is not apt to be highly considered. But 
Artemus Ward's wit never degenerated; it was such 
spontaneous, bubbhng fun that the spelHng struck one 
as quite natural and inevitable. 

His first lecture in England w^as delivered in the 
Egyptian Hall to a large and enthusiastic audience. 
The heat was very great when he appeared, as he wrote, 
for the first time in England, " be4 a C of upturned 
faces;" it was so oppressive to a man in his state of 
health that he felt constrained to remark, " When the 
Egyptians built this hall I wish they had not forgotten 
the ventilation." 

His English visit was a great success, but he closed it 
and his life together at the early age of thirty-two, 
followed by the sincere regret of friends and admirers 
in all walks of life. He flashed like a brilliant meteor 
across the sky of American literature, emerging from 
obscurity, having a brief but brilliant career, and then 
vanishing. His cometlike career induced questions as 
to his history. People wanted to know something about 
the gifted American who had so entertained them by 
his spontaneous and original humor. His extraordinary 
devotion to his aged mother added a romantic interest 
to his personality. He loved money, only for her sake ; 
in his utter devotion to her he was willing to sacrifice 
any taste or ambition. 

Charles Farrar Browne was born at Waterford, Maine, 
in 1836. He early left home to seek his fortune, and 
the first employment at w^hich he tried his hand was 
setting type on the " Carpet Bag," a comic paper pub- 

STO. OF MAINE — 18 



2 74 



lished at Chelsea, Massachusetts. The " Carpet Bag" 
has been chiefly known to fame as the vehicle for the 

funny sayings of " Mrs. 
Partington"(B. P. ShiUa- 
ber). At the time when 
''Charley Browne" be- 
gan his work as compos- 
itor, Seba Smith, another 
Maine humorist, was its 
editor. 

After he had set up the 
"Carpet Bag" jokes for 
a while, young Browne 
essayed one upon his own 
account. He disguised 
his writing and offered it 
as an anonymous contri- 
bution. The editor of the " Carpet Bag " knew a joke 
when he saw one, and the young compositor set it up 
the next day for publication. 

He removed, soon after, to the little town of Tiffin, 
Ohio, where he found an opportunity as a reporter as well 
as compositor. But there either his roving disposition 
declared itself or he wished to be rid of typesetting. 
He migrated to Toledo, where he abandoned his trade 
and became a fully fledged reporter. 

His forte showed itself, at once, as humorous satire, 
and before long his witty and caustic paragraphs in the 
Toledo " Commercial " attracted attention, which led, 
in 1858, to an invitation to the staff of the Cleveland 
** Plaindealer." He was then but twenty-three years 




Artemus Ward. 



2/5 

old. He liad, until then, used no distinctive signature, 
but he adopted the nom de plume of " Artemus Ward, 
Traveling Showman from Baldwinsville, Injianny." 
He advertised his show as comprising, among other 
interesting objects, " 3 moral Bares, a Kangaroo 
('tw^ould make you lafT yourself to deth to see the little 
cuss jump up and squeal), wax figgers of Genl. Wash- 
ington, Capt. Kidd, Genl. Taylor, Dr. Webster, and 
other celebrated piruts and murderers." In this style 
he was unique, and the great army of his imitators 
seem only toilsome laborers who never succeed in 
manufacturing anything that approaches his fresh fun. 

" He can scarcely be said to have had any models," 
says Mr. Northcroft, " although Artemus himself de- 
clared that in the beginning Seba Smith's w^ork served 
him to some extent as a pattern." 

" Some kind person has sent me Chawcer's poems," 
writes Artemus. "Mr. C. had talent, but he couldn't 
spel. It is a pity that Chawcer, who had geneyus, was 
so unedicated." 

We find, soon afterwards, that he has gone to New York 
cityand is editing** Vanity Fair," the American" Punch." 
But it is from the " Plaindealer " that his success may be 
dated. His nomadic nature asserted itself, and editorial 
duties were an irksome round. He planned a lecturing 
tour with the then fashionable panorama as an adjunct. 
Finding that his finances would scarcely warrant his 
investing in an expensive panorama, he bought a poor 
and cheap one, and announced on his program: "The 
panorama illustrating Mr. Ward's lecture is rather worse 
than panoramas usually are." 



276 

On appearing before his audience he would gravely 
announce his subject, then tell what he called a little 
story, which, with jokes, would last about an hour and 
a half. He would then gravely remark, " I now come 
to my subject." Pulling out his watch with apparent 
embarrassment, he would say, " But I have exceeded 
my time! " and would dismiss his audience with a con- 
fusion which seemed absolutely genuine. 

There were always a few grave faces, people who 
could not or would not see the point of his jokes ; so he 
inserted in his program this notice : " Mr. Ward will 
call on the citizens of London, at their residences, and 
explain any jokes in his narrative which they may not 
understand." While in England he wrote a series of 
letters to " Punch," which are among his best efforts. 

He had been very severe upon the Mormons, and he 
went among them to lecture, feeling some doubt as to 
his reception. But on his return he announced that the 
Mormons were not such '' unprincipled retches " as he 
had described. " Their religion is singular," he said, 
" but their wives are plural. Brigham Young is an 
indulgent father and a numerous husband. He is the 
most married man that I ever saw." 

The showman's free-and-easy fun is never coarse or 
irreverent of sacred things. He says himself, " I rarely 
stain my pages with even mild profanity. It is wicked, 
in the first place, and not funny, in the second." 

The London "Times" said: "His humor is utterly 
free from offense. Not only are his jokes irresistible, 
but his shrewd remarks prove him a man of reflection as 
well as a consummate humorist." 



277 

No man had nivore real reverence than the mocking 
showman, or greater fineness and dehcacy of sentiment, 
as is shown by his devotion to his mother. What he 
said in his dehciously funny interview with Prince 
Napoleon was quite seriously true : he '* bleeved in 
morality, likewise in meet'n'-houses." 

These are the reasons he gives for asking personal 
questions about the emperor. " I want to know how he 
stands as a man. I know he's smart. He's cunnin', he's 
long-headed, he is grate. But onless he is gcwd he'll 
come down with a crash, one of these days, and the 
Bonypartes will be busted up ag'in! Bet yer life." 

Thoroughly characteristic of his effortless wit is the 
story of his appearance before his wife after some sup- 
posed great change in his looks. " * Maria, do you know 
me?' I asked," says Artemus. " 'You old fool, of course 
I do ! ' answers Maria, crisply. I perceived at once that 
she did." 

He died of consumption when he was but thirty-two, 
regretted and beloved, as his friend Robertson says, by 
all who knew him. 

In the record office at Paris, the shire town of Oxford 
countv, Maine, is the will of Artemus Ward, made in 
England just before his death. It was in some respects 
a " goak," and is pathetic because it shows signs of being 
a forced one, the first of that kind of which its author 
was ever guilty. It is inscribed on two heavy sheets of 
parchment, about two feet square, in old iMiglish text, 
decorated with capitals and flourishes that it must 
have taken hours to fashion. The instrument begins: 
** This is the will of me, Charles Farrar Browne, known 



278 

as Artemus Ward." The testator directs that his body 
be buried in Waterford lower village, and bequeaths his 
library to the best scholar in Waterford upper village, 
and his manuscripts to R. H. Stoddard and Charles 
Dawson Shanley. After a few minor bequests to his 
mother and other relatives he gives the balance of his 
property, which he intimates is considerable, to found an 
asylum for worn-out printers. Horace Greeley is to be 
sole trustee, and his receipt is to be the only security 
demanded of him. The printer's asylum, was a joke, as 
he knew that the property he left was scarcely sufficient 
to pay the minor bequests. The parchment was sent to 
the Oxford probate court in a tin box, secured by a 
padlock and stamped with the British coat of arms. 

He was of quaint appearance, having a long, lank 
figure and rugged features. He always wrote his 
jokes sitting with his long legs hooked up on the arms 
of his office chair, and generally in convulsions of 
laughter, although when he delivered himself of the 
jokes in public he was as grave as a judge. 

An old friend writes of him: "Charley's was a 
gentle and beautiful spirit. And I always think that 
just such wit as his could have blossomed nowhere but 
in Maine." 

" It is better not to know so much," says the show- 
man, ** than to know so many things that ain't so! 



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♦ Cincinnati ♦ 



Chicago 



Spelling and Word Study 



Rice's Rational Spelling Book 
By Dr. J. M. Rice. 

Part I. For use in the first three grades of school work, 15 cents 
Part II. For use in all grades above the third . . 20 cents 
This is a spelling book pure and simple, arranged on a definite 

and logical plan, based upon an examination of the schools of nearly all 

the large cities of the country. 

Patterson's American Word Book 

Graded Lessons in Spelling, Defining, Punctuation, and Dictation. 
By Calvin Patterson, M. A 25 cents 

This New Spelling Book embodies a carefully developed and pro- 
gressive plan for teaching the forms and values of English words in 
common use. 

Harrington's Spelling Book. Complete . , .20 cents 
Part I., separate for Primary Grades . . . -.15 cents 

Part 11. , separate for Higher Grades . . . .15 cents 

McGuffey's Revised Eclectic Spelling Book . . 17 cents 

Natural Speller and Word Book . . .20 cents 

Swinton's Word Book of English Spelling . . 18 cents 

TEXT-BOOKS IN ETYMOLOGY AND ORTHOGRAPHY 

Anderson's Study of English Words 

By J. M. Anderson. Cloth, i2mo, ii8 pages . . 40 cents 
Designed to furnish, in a form suitable for school or private study, 
a summan- of the most important facts of the English language, with 
special reference to the growth and change of English words. 

Swinton's New Word Analysis 35 cents 

A practical work on etymology with exercises in analysis, etc. 



Copies of any of the above books will be sent prepaid to any address, on 
receipt of the price, by the Publishers : 

American Book Company 

New York ♦ Cincinnati • Chicago 



NOV 4 1839 




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